By Nevine Khalil Palestinian President Yasser Arafat painted a gloomy picture of the situation in the deadlocked peace process when he briefed President Hosni Mubarak and his aides on Tuesday on the results of direct Palestinian-Israeli talks which had started two days earlier in Tel Aviv. Mubarak and Arafat also discussed the upcoming meeting of the Jerusalem Committee of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC) under the auspices of Morocco's King Hassan at the end of this month. "Unfortunately, until now the negotiations have failed to produce anything substantial and there are no signs to give hope there will be an improvement in the situation," Arafat told reporters following the meeting with Mubarak. Foreign Minister Amr Moussa said that "nobody is hopeful," and that Arafat "sounded pessimistic" during the meeting. A member of Arafat's delegation remarked: "We have gone an extra 1,000 miles and there is nowhere left to walk." The Israelis were supposed to bring "creative ideas" to this week's talks, but none were forthcoming. "On the contrary, [the Israelis] continue to repeat the same words," said Arafat. Moussa noted that the "creative ideas are still to come, if ever," adding that so far, the Israelis "have not met the Palestinians' minimum requirements." He suggested that the "sole creative idea is for the Israelis to say that they accept the US initiative, but want to [refine] this or that point, but this did not happen." He added that "perhaps" the talks, which were to continue Tuesday evening, "would help the situation. Let us wait and see." Last week, the US urged the Palestinians and Israelis to hold direct talks to break the 16-month deadlock after the American redeployment initiative was rejected by Israel. The proposal, although never officially announced, called for an Israeli troop withdrawal from 13.1 per cent of West Bank territory in the second phase of redeployment stipulated by the Hebron accords of January last year. The US "back to the table" idea also appears to have failed, since little progress was made during three days of talks. At the opening of talks on Sunday, the Palestinians were led by Mahmoud Abbas, the number two man in the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), and the Israelis were headed by Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai. Mubarak, who hosted a three-way summit on 5 July with Arafat and Jordan's King Hussein, said this week that no other "mini-summits" are planned soon. Cairo, however, is expecting the arrival of Syrian President Hafez Al-Assad within days, Mubarak added. In an interview with the Middle East News Agency (MENA), Mubarak said that "matters have not reached a dead end," a statement which appeared to exclude the possibility of holding a full-scale Arab summit in the near future. "An Arab summit requires a clear vision in order to produce effective, specific decisions," Mubarak told MENA. Moussa will travel to France next Monday to discuss with Paris officials present prospects for the Mubarak-Chirac initiative announced last May. The initiative calls for an international peace conference, excluding the parties directly involved in the process, namely the Palestinians, Syrians, Lebanese and Israelis. Moussa said his visit would "activate" this initiative. While in the US last week to launch the Egyptian-US strategic dialogue, Moussa discussed the Egyptian-French initiative with American officials. He said that although there was "no [US] opposition" to the proposal, it needed to be "further concretised" through discussions next week in Paris. Asked about future steps if Israel persisted in its intransigence, Moussa said more time was needed to determine the course of action that would be taken. "We will cross that bridge when we come to it," he said, "and we will come to it soon." Egyptian officials have often said that the Egyptian-French proposal would not be activated, nor would an Arab summit be held until the US announced the outcome of its initiative. Mubarak urged the US to go public, adding that it was possible that Washington's "special relationship" with Tel Aviv prevented such a move. He warned of "negative effects" on public opinion as a result of US hesitation. While in Washington, Moussa was reassured by US officials, including Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, that the US will "continue on the path of trying to get the approval of both parties of the US proposal." Moussa said that "there is no chance" that the US administration might accommodate Israeli alterations to its proposal.
