By IPS Correspondents
OSLO, Nov 2 1999 (IPS)

The Middle East summit between the leaders of Israel, Palestine and the United States ended here Tuesday without any of the hoped-for announcements of a breakthrough in the regional peace process.

Presidents Bill Clinton (US) and Yasser Arafat (Palestinian National Authority) as well as Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak agreed that the summit had been fruitful after a long standstill in the peace process and that regular Israeli-Palestinian top-level meetings will take place.

They also agreed to refrain from issuing public statements that might slow down or halt the peace process.

The main players in the Middle East process gathered in the Norwegian capital for what was announced as the final stages of the peace- marathon for the conflict-ridden region.

“Nobody who has seen photographs of President Arafat and (late) prime minister (Yitzhak) Rabin on the steps of the White House can doubt that the Middle East has changed during your presidency,” Norwegian King Harald said Monday at a luncheon.

King Harald has reason to argue that the peace process has taken quite a few steps forward in the 1990s, but the process is far from over yet. Clinton is running out of time if he wants to become the first U.S. president to accomplish a breakthrough in the peace process.

On the other hand Arafat, the aging Palestinian leader, is also in a hurry to establish a Palestinian state, something he has been fighting for in the last 50 years.

In Oslo Arafat confirmed his strong wishes for peace by stating: “I feel the same way as Clinton that this occasion should serve as a good opportunity to give the peace process a new chance.”

“We are not asking for the impossible. We only wish that the papers that we have signed should come into effect,” he added.

Accused by many of leading a ‘Bantustan’ (puppet state in the model of apartheid-era South Africa), Arafat reiterated in Oslo that Palestinians expect Israel to withdraw from lands occupied in 1967 and to dismantle Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories, as mandated by the United Nations Security Council.

In addition to Arafat, Barak and Clinton the attendants’ list at the Oslo summit also included, amongst others, Finland’s president Martti Ahtisaari, Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin, and Jordanian and Moroccan ministers of Foreign Affairs, Abdel Elah Khatib and Mohammed Benaïssa.

The official reason for the gathering was a ceremony to honour the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin, assassinated by a nationalist Jew on 4 November, 1995.

Rabin is considered one of the architects of the peace process, for which he, Arafat and former Israeli Foreign minister Shimon Peres were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1994.

Rabin’s widow, Leah Rabin, took the initiative to hold the commemoration ceremony.

It is “sad to be here exactly four years after he was killed. I hope the meeting here in Oslo will serve as an obligation to continue the peace process that started here. In Israel, Oslo will always be associated with peace,” she said.

This commemoration was to serve as a starter for a new round of talks in the peace process, something Clinton tried to push from the very start when he stated that the summit may “give some energy to this process.”

Clinton said that if Rabin had been alive to see the gathering, he would have said: “This is all nice, but if you really want to honour me, finish the job.”

“We have now a chance, but only a chance, to bring real and lasting peace between Israel and her neighbours,” Clinton said. “If we let it slip away, all will bear the consequences.”

All three – Barak, Clinton and Arafat – had developed close ties to Rabin and were deeply affected during Leah Rabin’s speech on the commemoration Monday.

Clinton even shed a tear as she said: “It is your commitment to now find the right formula to finish what my husband started and had to pay the highest price for – his life. It is up to you. Is it too much to ask for?”

Almost seven years have gone by since the first round of negotiations, known as the Oslo channel, began in January 1993.

Dissatisfied with the lack of progress after the Madrid conference in 1991 -the first ever direct dialogue between the PLO (Palestine Liberation Organisation) and Tel Aviv – Israelis and Palestinians started to look for other forms of contact.

Unlike previous attempts on peacemaking, the Oslo talks left out debates on the conflict’s historical causes.

At Tuesday’s summit the parties stressed that it was in everybody’s interest that talks remained mostly out of the public eye. Upon Clinton’s arrival in Oslo Monday morning, he reminded those who had come to meet him of this necessity.

“Probably the less we say about it in public, the more likely we are to get something done,” Clinton said.

The initial stages in 1993 ended with the Oslo Peace Accord that laid down the principles for a gradual establishment of peace between Israel and the Palestinians. The Accord included an interim agreement on the establishment of a Palestinian self-government in parts of the West Bank and in Gaza.

The implementation of the Oslo accords suffered many setbacks. The Hebron Protocol of January 1997, the Wye River Memorandum of October 1998 and finally the Sharm el-Sheikh Memorandum of September 1999 testify to the difficulties.

In the last few months Barak has started to implement some of the specific targets set by the 1998 Wye River accord, such as the release of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli detention camps, and the opening of a passage for Palestinians between the Gaza strip and the West Bank.

The most difficult matters are, however, yet to be dealt with. These are the fate of the Jewish settlements in Palestinian occupied territories, a Palestinian state and the status of Jerusalem, claimed as capital city by both Palestinians and Israelis.

The Middle East talks in Oslo this week have not led to a breakthrough in the peace process, but the discussions may have served as an icebreaker between the parties for further negotiations.

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