JERUSALEM – Weary negotiators wrapped up marathon Israeli-Palestinian talks yesterday without an accord in place, despite saying they made “substantial progress” toward peace.
Aides to Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said he’d be willing to travel to Sweden next week to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak to try to forge an 11th-hour deal before Israel’s Feb. 6 elections.
But Barak, whose leadership may be on the line if he doesn’t strike a peace accord, hasn’t decided whether to go, his aides said.
And since both sides remain miles apart on several key issues, the likelihood of a deal that could end months of violence is slim.
The talks broke up as President Bush made his first phone call to Barak since assuming the presidency, saying he believes a “secure Israel” is critical to Mideast peace, White House officials said.
The centerpiece of the weeklong talks in Taba, Egypt, was a package of proposals made by former President Bill Clinton.
Negotiators still insisted the sit-downs were “unprecedented in their positive atmosphere.”
“Given the circumstances and time constraints, it proved impossible to reach understandings on all issues despite the substantial progress that was achieved in each of the issues discussed,” the negotiators said in a joint statement.
But Barak hinted the window of opportunity for reaching a deal may be gone, telling Bush the peace process will be on hold until after the elections, Barak’s office said.
Barak said the two camps “have almost reached an accord. We can see it through a crack in the door between us, but time is too short,” Israeli army radio reported.
One Israeli negotiator who was at the bargaining table told The Post the Palestinians “haven’t budged one inch” from demands Barak objects to: giving Palestinians control over sections of Jerusalem that both sides consider sacred, as well as letting Palestinian refugees return to their former homes in Israel.
Members of the Palestinian team said the two sides grew closer talking about security and borders of a future Palestinian state.
Barak badly needs a deal with the Palestinians to be in place before the elections.
He lags in the polls behind hard-liner Ariel Sharon.
If Sharon wins the race, it would lead to “an escalation of the conflict,” Arafat said in yesterday’s editions of the Italian newspaper La Repubblica.
“With him in power, we cannot have peace.”
Meanwhile, the seven-minute Bush-Barak phone call was described by National Security Council spokeswoman Mary Ellen Countryman as “an introductory call” where the president “reaffirmed the close relationship with Israel and his desire for peace in the region based on a secure Israel.”