VARIOUS: REACTIONS AS ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU RETURNS FROM U.S. VISIT/ YASSER ARAFAT MEETS MADELINE ALBRIGHT IN WASHINGTON.

Record ID: 399743

  • Title: VARIOUS: REACTIONS AS ISRAELI PM NETANYAHU RETURNS FROM U.S. VISIT/ YASSER ARAFAT MEETS MADELINE ALBRIGHT IN WASHINGTON.
  • Date: 21st January 1998
  • Summary: BEN GURION AIRPORT, NEAR TEL AVIV, ISRAEL (JANUARY 22, 1998) (RTV - ACCESS ALL) 1. LV/MV: PLANE ON TARMAC, SECURITY MAN (2 SHOTS) 0.07 2. GV/MV/TV: ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER BENJAMIN NETANYAHU ALIGHTING FROM PLANE WITH WIFE SARA/ NETANYAHU GREETING OFFICIALS (3 SHOTS) 0.33 ITAMAR AND OFRA SETTLEMENTS, WEST BANK (RECENT) (RTV -
  • Embargoed: 5th February 1998 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: BEN GURION AIRPORT AND TEL AVIV, ISRAEL/ JERUSALEM/ ITAMAR AND OFRA SETTLEMENTS, WEST BANK/ NEAR NETZARIM SETTLEMENT, GAZA/ WASHINGTON, D.C., UNITED STATES
  • City:
  • Country: Palestinian Territories
  • Reuters ID: LVA879XCOKQB26OQ89NYT4T5Y24L
  • Story Text: INTRO: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has returned home after a trip to Washington during which he resisted pressure from U.S. President Bill Clinton for a West Bank troop pullback.

    Netanyahu has said his Washington trip yielded progress, prompting Israeli right-wingers to warn him against returning too much West bank land to Palestinians.

    Netanyahu arrived at Ben Gurion airport on Thursday (January 22) to grudging applause from right-wingers suspicious of pullouts on the West Bank.

    "He must know that if he comes with a withdrawal of almost 10 percent... we will vote against him," Knesset (parliament) member Michael Kleiner, member of the influential Gesher bloc, warned on Thursday.

    Netanyahu's communications chief David Bar-Illan declared that no final figure was discussed during the talks in Washington, adding that the future of the peace process now depended on Palestinian President Yasser Arafat's own talks with Clinton, due to take place later on Thursday.

    Arafat arrived in Washington on Wednesday and held talks with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright over dinner.

    Israeli news reports said Netanyahu had refused to withdraw from more than 9.5 percent of West Bank areas under full Israeli control during two meetings with Clinton on Tuesday and talks with top administration officials.

    The United States, seeking a package to open talks on a final Israeli-PLO peace settlement, is reported to want a "double digit" interim pullback. The Palestinians demand a pullback in the 30 percent range.

    Netanyahu has long called on the Palestinians to "lower their expectations" in peace talks with Israel, and he appeared to have secured at least a measure of support from Washington.

    Sources familiar with the talks said Clinton was proposing that Israel carry out the next phase of withdrawals in smaller steps in parallel with concrete PLO moves on security, including intelligence sharing and a crackdown on Moslem militants.

    Palestinian police in the Gaza Strip prevented Palestinian protesters from burning an Israeli flag near a Jewish settlement on Thursday.

    The police stepped in to stop the flag-burning when around 50 Palestinians waving banners and chanting anti-Israeli slogans gathered on the road near Netzarim settlement, where Palestinians and Jewish settlers have clashed in the past.


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