Israel suspends all non-security talks

Attack on bus stop could end talks in Maryland

A senior Palestinian official, Yasser Abed Rabbo, dismissed the Israeli move as "cheap blackmail."

President Clinton said the grenade attack was a "complicating factor" in the talks, which entered their fifth day yesterday. But he returned as planned to the secluded conference site along the Wye River to try to coax Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to conclude a land-for-peace deal.

AP PHOTO An Israeli soldier cries as he is carried to an ambulance after a grenade attack hit the central bus station in Beersheba, Israel, wounding 64 Israelis.

White House spokesperson Joe Lockhart said Clinton was beginning his fourth day of mediation by meeting jointly with Israeli and Palestinian security experts, then planned brief back-to-back sessions with Netanyahu and Arafat and expected to wind up with a three-way dinner.

He declined to say how long the already extended summit would last. "It is virtually impossible to predict," he said.

Netanyahu consulted yesterday with senior Cabinet officials, then declared that "for progress to be achieved on other issues, we must first focus on security and terrorism. We are awaiting answers from the Palestinians today."

The Israeli leader said that he would not stay on Maryland's Eastern Shore "for an unlimited period of time" and that the United States and the Palestinian delegation had been notified that Israel was postponing discussion of a projected opening of a Palestinian airport in Gaza.

Netanyahu declared a land-for-peace accord was impossible unless Arafat's Palestinian Authority lived up to the security commitments it made in past agreements with Israel.

The Americans and the Palestinians worked together, meanwhile, to try to ease the discord.

Arafat telephoned Netanyahu to condemn the attack as regrettable and to pledge there would be an investigation.

Arafat and Netanyahu said in a joint statement issued by the State Department that the terrorist attack "demonstrates the critical importance and urgency of fighting terror and pursuing peace."

State Department spokesperson James Rubin called the attack "tragic and cowardly."

He said Secretary of State Madeleine Albright had met with Arafat and there were "informal contacts" between Israelis and Palestinians, as well.

Palestinian sources said Israeli Foreign Minister Ariel Sharon had met with two senior Palestinian officials, Mahmoud Abbas and Ahmed Qurie.

The sources, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Palestinians continued to press for release of hundreds of prisoners held by Israel and for full control of about 14 percent of the 27 percent of the West Bank that Israel already has agreed to relinquish.

The swath of land is now under joint security control.

Current negotiations are based on Israel's willingness to surrender a further 13 percent of the territory, with 3 percent designated as a nature preserve. Security would be jointly controlled by Israel and the Palestinians.

Rubin said attacks had caused temporary setbacks to peacemaking in the past, and "we are going to work a hard as we can today" on an agreement.

Clinton deplored the attack before leaving Washington and acknowledged negotiators were having a tough time.

"The issues are difficult," Clinton said. "The distrust is deep. The going has been tough. But the parties must consider the consequences of failure and also the benefits of progress."

A senior Netanyahu adviser, David Bar-Illan, said that the attack in Beersheba, which injured more than three score Israelis, was the 10th in a series over seven weeks, and that the Palestinian Authority had done nothing about most of them.

Rubin disagreed. He said the Palestinians had improved its security arrangements.

"Clearly, if the Israelis do not show up for committee meetings, there will not be committee meetings," Rubin said. But, he added, "we are continuing to work as hard as we can today."

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