Barak: Don't waste chance for peace

The mood on the ground is not one of peace

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak has warned against missing the opportunity to reach a peace deal with the Palestinians in the final days of the Clinton presidency.

Whatever is not achieved in the near future might not be achieved for a long time

Ehud Barak

Mr Barak said that although it was likely the talks would result in something short of an agreement, it could be a long time before a similar opportunity arose.

His comments came as President Clinton's Middle East envoy was preparing to travel back to the region later on Tuesday.

The problems facing the peace process were evident on Monday when tens of thousands of Israelis took part in a protest in Jerusalem to show their opposition to US proposals to divide sovereignty over the city between Israelis and Palestinians.

Thousands of protesters ringed the Old City walls

The Palestinian leadership, however, paid tribute to Mr Clinton for what it said was his clear emphasis on the Palestinian people's right to establish an independent state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Both Mr Barak and Palesinian leader Yasser Arafat have tentatively accepted a framework for peace put forward by President Clinton - but have added so many conditions as to make its application practically impossible.

With Mr Clinton due to leave office on 20 January, and Mr Barak facing re-election in early February, there has been frantic shuttle diplomacy in recent weeks aimed at securing a final peace deal and ending three-and-a-half months of violence.

More than 350 people have died in the clashes, the overwhelming majority of them Palestinians.

No compromise

Monday's torchlit rally in Jerusalem's Old City was, organisers said, the largest of its kind to protest against handing parts of the city to the Palestinians.

Don't be the first president in the history of your country to propose the division of the historical and eternal capital of the Jewish people

Israeli Mayor of Jerusalem Ehud Olmert

Right-wing Jewish settlers and a range of Israelis from other shades of political opinion ringed part of the ancient walls of the Old City - which houses sites holy to Jews, Muslims and Christians.

Thousands of extra police were called in to ensure calm during the demonstration and participants were banned from one section of the wall to avoid clashes with Palestinian residents.

Demonstrators were in no mood to discuss handing back parts of the city, which Israel seized in 1967.

Natan Sharansky, one of the rally organisers, said: "[Jerusalem] was the centre of our dreams, of our prayers and of our struggle.

"It is the heart of our people and we cannot give away our heart."

There have also been angry scenes in the Palestinian territories where marches have been held in support of Arab refugees' right of return to what is now Israel - a right the US has been urging the Palestinian leadership to waive for the sake of peace talks.

There were similar demonstrations staged by refugees in Lebanon, whose exiled Palestinian population has grown to about 360,000 people since the first refugees arrived in 1948.

Deal 'unlikely'

Prospects for peace have already dived in recent days with the outbreak of more clashes and the winding up of Israeli-Palestinian-US talks in Cairo without any sign of a return to security co-operation.

Even US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright acknowledged that a comprehensive deal was highly unlikely before President Clinton left office.

The Cairo talks broke up with Israel demanding that the Palestinian Authority re-arrest dozens of Islamic militants it has released since the start of the popular uprising in September.

The Palestinians counter that Israel must first lift its blockade against the Palestinian territories, which has been in effect for most of that time.