Israel-Plo Pact Draws Dignitaries White House Ceremony Marks Progress On ‘93 Peace Treaty

Middle East leaders began converging on Washington Wednesday for a White House ceremony that the Clinton administration hopes will build confidence in the peace process and give it “a new momentum to push forward.”

President Clinton will preside today at the East Room signing of an Israel-PLO agreement to end nearly three decades of Israeli occupation of West Bank cities. It is a major step in implementing the 1993 peace treaty signed by PLO chief Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

“It’s a great achievement,” Jordan’s King Hussein said on a visit to the Pentagon. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak took up temporary residence in Blair House, across from the White House, causing a security clampdown on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Apart from the pageantry, Clinton will meet separately with Middle East leaders today and Friday to take stock of the peace process and seek ways to accelerate it.

Hussein and Mubarak will join Arafat and Rabin at the signing ceremony. The Palestine Liberation Organization leader and the Israeli prime minister will hold private talks with Clinton today; Mubarak and Hussein will see the president on Friday.

Syria scotched rumors it would boycott today’s ceremony and notified Washington that it will send a representative, although it was unclear who it would be. Lebanon and Saudi Arabia, which are also reluctant players in the peace process, will be represented, as well.

Russian Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev will join Secretary of State Warren Christopher in making opening remarks.

“The events that you’ll see over the next few days are going to be significant in terms of Middle East peacemaking,” said Dennis Ross, the State Department’s senior Middle East coordinator.

Christopher said he hoped the agreement would provide incentive for Israel and Syria to pick up the pace of their stalled peace negotiations.

In any event, Christopher said he expects to go back to the Middle East in two or three weeks to try to prod them along.

The White House talks will be the highest-level Middle East discussions since Clinton brought Arafat and Rabin together for a historic handshake on the South Lawn two years ago.

Ross called it “an unusual collection of key actors in the Middle East.”

In connection with the talks, the administration will convene a meeting of wealthy countries, such as Japan, Canada, Saudi Arabia and the European Union, which have pledged $2.4 billion to help the Palestinians. Most of the money has not been delivered because of uncertainty about whether the Palestinians were prepared to use it efficiently.