Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak is telling U.S. officials he hopes to negotiate peace accords with Syria and the Palestinians in 15 months – and will need an unprecedented amount of U.S. aid after that.
Barak arrived in New York yesterday after spending Thursday night with President Clinton at Camp David and conferring with Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and Defense Secretary William Cohen.
Barak outlined his agenda during one-on-one meetings with Clinton – but also said he’s decided to buy 50 U.S.-made fighter-bombers for about $2.5 billion.
The purchase of the F-16Is is the first major decision by the new prime minister and follows months of debate among Israeli strategists about how to maintain a qualitative military edge in view of a massive arms race in Arab countries.
But Barak’s main message during his six-day U.S. trip is that he will reach peace in simultaneous negotiations with Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinians – and he emphasized to Albright that he intends to nail down the basic terms of agreement in 15 months.
In Gaza, Palestinian President Yasser Arafat said yesterday that Barak had told him he needed time “while he travels,” but that he expected to resume negotiations with the Palestinians by the end of the month.
Israeli-Palestinian talks collapsed last year when both sides blamed each other for failing to live up to the terms of an agreement Clinton pushed them into signing at the Wye Plantation summit.
Few details of the Clinton-Barak talks have emerged. But the newspaper Maariv reported Barak said Israel needs “massive” U.S. financial aid, totaling several billion dollars, once it turns over the Golan Heights to Syria as part of a peace accord.
He told Clinton the money is needed to relocate army bases and Jewish settlements from the area, captured during the 1967 Mideast war, and to improve the Israeli armed forces as compensation for the loss of that strategic stronghold.
Maariv said Barak had not put a price tag on the aid, but said he is concerned that it will be difficult to win congressional approval for the unprecedented amount.