By Hoda Tawfik The United States has turned up the heat on Israel in what it calls the end-game of current peace efforts, warning them the ball is now in their court to make a deal with the Palestinians. The comment by State Department spokesman James Rubin, one of Secretary of State Madeleine Albright's closest aides, marked a departure from the US administration's studied neutrality in the peace negotiations. It was a direct rebuttal of Israel's assertion that the responsibility for the 16-month impasse in peace talks lies with the Palestinians, diplomatic sources said. "The ball is not in the Palestinian court. The ball is in the court of the Israelis to try to work with the Palestinians and work with us to come to a second 'yes'," Rubin said. "We have a 'yes' from the Palestinians and we are looking to get ourselves in a position where the Israelis can say 'yes' as well," he added. The remarks underscored US frustration with Israel, Washington's key Middle East ally, and the fading promise of the 1993 Oslo Accord that committed the Jewish state and the Palestinians to the path of formal peacemaking. Under Oslo's timeline, there is less than one year to go before the two sides are to complete a final peace agreement. They have yet, though, to finalise an interim accord under which Israel will cede more West Bank territory to Palestinian control. Albright has held intensive contacts with both sides in the past week and the US says Palestinians and Israelis have agreed to direct talks, probably later this week, but prospects for a deal are widely judged to be slim. Palestinian officials said Mahmoud Abbas, their top negotiator, is expected to meet with Israeli Defence Minister Yitzhak Mordechai within the next few days. The date of the meeting, the first in a series of direct Palestinian-Israeli talks, will be set after Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat returns from a visit to China at the end of the week, officials said. The talks are unlikely to last more than a week. Arafat insisted in Beijing yesterday on action from Israel to revive the faltering peace process. Asked if he would go to the negotiating table with Israel, the Palestinian president told reporters: "We are not against opening talks but we are in need of results and not talks." "It is obvious they are trying to escape from implementing accurately and honestly what has been signed between both of us," Arafat said. "I am not asking for the moon." President Hosni Mubarak warned on Tuesday the alternative to peace "will be very grave indeed... violence and terror whose stage will be the entire world... and nobody will be able to do anything to stop it." Foreign Minister Amr Moussa, in Washington for a "strategic dialogue" with the Clinton administration, said any talks between Israel and the Palestinians should focus on the US proposal for a 13 per cent Israeli withdrawal from West Bank territory. The talks, he told Hoda Tewfik, would be an "exercise in futility" if they addressed Israeli demands for a modification of the American initiative. Moussa, at a meeting with US Jewish leaders on Tuesday, was "very pessimistic" about prospects for a breakthrough, said David Harris, American Jewish Committee Executive Director. Moussa said the collapse of the peace talks could prompt the Arab world to call for an international conference on the issue. He predicted overwhelming support in Europe and the Arab world if Palestinians declared statehood in May 1999 in the absence of a peace accord. For his part, Arafat said he was pushing for an Arab summit and a meeting of foreign ministers of Islamic states in a bid to stop Israel's plan to expand the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem. Arafat said he planned meetings with the leaders of Egypt and Jordan and that he had already been in contact with Iranian President Mohamed Khatami and King Hassan of Morocco. The latter heads the Jerusalem Committee of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC). "It is very well known that Jerusalem is important for the Palestinians, for the Arabs and the Muslims and the Christians," Arafat told reporters in Beijing. "That is why we call for an Arab summit and in due course will convene bilateral meetings between Palestine, Jordan and Egypt as a preparation for the summit conference." Arafat's oft-made demand for an Arab summit followed a call on Israel by the UN Security Council not to go forward with plans to create a Greater Jerusalem. The 15-member Council unanimously approved a presidential statement that said the Israeli decision to expand Jerusalem was a "serious and damaging development" and urged Israel "not to proceed with the decision." It asked Israel "not to take any other steps which would prejudice the outcome of the permanent status negotiations" of Palestinian territory. The statement was welcomed by President Mubarak. "Israel has been challenging the world and no one has said a word," Mubarak told reporters after a graduation ceremony of naval cadets in Alexandria on Tuesday. "For once, the Security Council has upheld justice." Israel said it regretted the Security Council's decision but would not scrap the plan. The Palestinians hailed the Council's statement but expressed disappointment in the absence of concrete action. Also see Interview with Foreign Minister Amr Moussa
