Word: envoy
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...Friday amid complaints by Palestinians that he sided too much with Israel in peace negotiations, Dennis Ross abruptly changed course and held last minute talks with Yasser Arafat. The move came after Arafat refused to meet with Ross out of a growing frustration that the U.S. envoy was not taking an active enough role in talks. Palestinian negotiators have in fact for weeks been pushing President Clinton to dump Ross. "Palestinian officials . . . don't trust him," Arafat spokesman Marwan Kanafani told TIME last week. Palestinians say Ross has not pressed Netanyahu's government hard enough on the issue...
...Clinton Administration dispatched U.N. ambassador Bill Richardson last week to push Mobutu into a face-to-face meeting with Kabila to arrange a "soft landing," allowing the President to retire on grounds of ill health. Richardson carried a letter along those lines from Clinton. The special envoy was also trying to persuade Kabila that he should accept a cease-fire, commit himself to early elections and open the way for aid agencies to help feed and evacuate tens of thousands of Rwandan Hutu refugees who fled the fighting only to starve in the Zairean jungle. Both men disliked the terms...
...year reign by flying not south to Kinshasa but north to France. "Even if Mobutu does fly to France, he will almost certainly still be vowing to return to Zaire," says TIME's Peter Graff from Nairobi. Western diplomats are hoping he stays away. "With Mobutu absent, (US envoy) Bill Richardson's 'soft landing' will be much easier to negotiate," says Graff. "The remnants of the Mobutuist military would agree to lay down their arms and the rebels would enter the capital in peace." As fighting continues near Kenge, east of the capital, Graff says rebel leader Laurent Kabila himself...
...ever return. Mobutu aides say he will come home Friday, but with Laurent Kabila reportedly less than 100 miles from Kinshasa, many are speculating that Mobutu will leave Gabon for exile on the French Riviera. One possible indication that Mobutu is ready to relinquish Zaire: The itinerary of U.S. envoy Bill Richardson. After a day of talks with Mobutu representatives, Richardson is headed to Paris where he could be looking for assurances from French officials that should Mobutu come to France, as one of his aides has already suggested, he can retire there unmolested. Although Kabila has indicated he would...
GAZA: Yasser Arafat is sending a strong signal that U.S. envoy Dennis Ross better come armed with concrete proposals to move peace talks forward when he arrives in the Middle East Tuesday. In a none-to-subtle push to get the Clinton Administration to aggressively work with Benjamin Netanyahu on a peace settlement, Arafat told reporters he didn't think Ross would bring any new suggestions to the table. "Naturally, the Palestinians are hoping the Americans will come with a fairly aggressive and dynamic proposal which will break the deadlock," reports TIME's Scot MacLeod. "But since this hasn...