Albright: Palestinians Can't Expect More Than in 2000
Reuters
Date: 01-26-05
CAIRO (Reuters) - Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, a key figure in talks that came close to an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement, Wednesday said Palestinians could not expect more from a deal than was offered in 2000.
Albright was in office in December 2000 when U.S. President Bill Clinton floated peace proposals based on Israeli withdrawal to a line slightly adjusted from Israel's 1967 borders.
Israelis and Palestinians negotiated the details but talks did not resume after the Israeli government lost power in 2001.
Albright said the death of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat in November made a big difference to the prospects for peace talks now resuming between Israelis and Palestinians.
"I hope ... the new (Palestinian) leadership will understand what is being offered. Arafat turned down the best deal that any Palestinian will ever see," she told businessmen Wednesday at a lunch organized by the American Chamber of Commerce in Egypt.
Historians and participants have been disputing for the last four years whether Arafat ever received a detailed proposal on which he was expected to take a decision.
"The question is how to get some kind of a plan which I would be willing to say would look a lot like the parameters that President Clinton suggested and how to get that on the table rapidly enough to give the Palestinians a sense of encouragement," Albright added.
Albright, visiting Egypt to meet mainly with civil society leaders, predicted that President Bush would be more active in Middle East diplomacy during his second term.
"The fact that the administration in its first term really did not involve itself in Middle East peace should be a lesson that it need to (do so) very strongly now," she added.
"It is my belief that they do see getting personally involved as one of the highest priorities," she said.
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