http://www.jpost.com/com/Archive/30.Jun.1999/News/Article-2.html
The Jerusalem Post, June 30, 1999
US Seeks to Postpone UN Session on Settlements
By Hillel Kuttler
WASHINGTON (June 30) - The US is seeking to at least
postpone the upcoming UN meeting on settlement
construction, because the event sends a bad signal to
Prime Minister-elect Ehud Barak, US Assistant Secretary
of State for Near Eastern Affairs Martin Indyk said
yesterday.
The UN session, under the Fourth Geneva Convention, is
being gathered only "to put Israel in a corner" on the
issue of settlements, and the US "strongly" opposes what
could be a "bad precedent" for other international
matters, Indyk told reporters at the State Department.
The briefing occurred just before Indyk joined Secretary
of State Madeleine Albright for a meeting with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak at the official guest quarters
at Blair House.
Mubarak will meet with a wide array of congressmen today
and is to visit President Bill Clinton at the White
House tomorrow.
Clinton intends to utilize the occasion to consult with
Mubarak on how to cooperatively "push the peace process
forward on all fronts, with the objective of achieving a
comprehensive peace," Indyk said.
Mubarak and Vice President Al Gore will then sign a
bilateral trade and investment framework agreement that
serves as a precursor to an eventual free-trade
agreement, Indyk said.
He also said Cairo should "take steps to broaden and
deepen its relationship with Israel" as the peace
process advances.
Mubarak yesterday hailed Barak's incoming government as
a "new dawn" for the Middle East.
"I think [Barak's] a good man, a very cautious man,
promising. ... He's contacted me several times and I
have great hopes that he's going to make progress in the
peace process," said Mubarak, speaking at a honorary
degree ceremony at George Washington University.
On the Syrian track, Indyk stated that President Hafez
Assad's positive words about Barak in a newspaper
interview last week are "an indicator of his desire to
engage" with him.
The US's conversations with Assad over the past six
months, he added, "lead us to believe that he is keen to
engage with the new government in the hopes of achieving
a comprehensive peace."
A renewed Israel-Palestinian Authority dialogue is the
proper forum for the latter to raise its complaints over
settlements, whereas the special UN session, scheduled
for July 15, "will not be a productive way of resolving
this issue," Indyk said. The comments were the most
in-depth by an American official since Gore announced
last month that the administration will boycott the
event.
"The proposed meeting will come right at the time when
the new government of Israel is likely to be first being
sworn in, and a prime minister who is committed to
moving forward in the peace process and to pursuing the
policies of Yitzhak Rabin... is a prime minister that we
believe should be given a chance, and that Israel should
not be put into the corner like this in the opening days
of his new government. It will be counterproductive,"
Indyk said.
"The settlements issue is an issue to be dealt with in
the permanent status negotiations. We want to see those
negotiations resumed as quickly as possible. We believe
that there is a common interest among Israel, the
Palestinian Authority, the United States, Egypt, and
other interested parties to get those negotiations
moving and to try to bring them to a conclusion within a
one-year time frame. That is the place where the
settlements issue should be addressed, not in some
international forum which doesn't have a basis in the
Conventions for a meeting and which cannot produce a
positive result by its very nature.
"So we will not be attending such a meeting, if it takes
place, and we will do everything we can to urge parties
involved in this exercise not to have the meeting and
certainly to postpone it from its meeting date of July
15."
