Hopeful Clinton Rejoins Mideast Summit

T H U R M O N T, Md., July 13 -- President Clinton returned to the mountaintop summit at Camp David this afternoon, rejoining the Middle East negotiators after an eight-hour absence during which the summit was very much on his mind.

At the annual NAACP convention across the state in Baltimore, Md., this morning, Clinton suggested that the peacemakers — whose negotiations continued in his absence — take a lesson in goodwill from American civil rights leaders.

“You embody the spirit of freedom and reconcilation we’re trying to capture there, that we need so badly in our talks,” he told the large African-American audience, calling the summit a “quest for full, fair, and final peace.”

And during a brief White House appearance this afternoon to announce a U.S. trade agreement with Vietnam, Clinton likened those trade negotiations, too, to the summit.

The U.S.-Vietnamese pact is “a reminder that former adversaries can come together and find common ground, to forgive and to reconcile,” Clinton said, adding that that’s just what the Middle Eastern leaders had to do at Camp David.

But Clinton declined to go into specifics.

“I think I should say nothing about what’s going on at Camp David,” he said. “The less I say, the greater our chances of success.”

Bringing the Outside In

Throughout the summit, the White House has painted a picture of cozy communal meals, friendly walks around the wooded grounds of the Catoctin Mountains presidentialretreat, and quiet conversations on the back porch.

In the past, such informality and enforced togetherness has been credited for summit success.

At the watershed Camp David summit of 1978, which paved the way for peace between Israel and Egypt, President Jimmy Carter spent 13 days and nights at the retreat, demanding that other participants do the same.

But the Palestinians may seek to break the isolation from the outside world that has prevailed so far. Palestinian sources said Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat wanted to hold a “leadership meeting” with Palestinian officials who were not part of his delegation and thushave not been allowed inside Camp David.