Military

DATE=11/7/2000

TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT

NUMBER=2-268953

TITLE=CLINTON / MIDEAST INQUIRY (L)

BYLINE=DAVID GOLLUST

DATELINE=NEW YORK

CONTENT=

VOICED AT:

INTRO: President Clinton has named former U-S Senate Majority leader George Mitchell to head a panel of inquiry into the causes of the violence between Israel and Palestinians that broke out last month and halted the regional peace process. The move comes in advance of Mr. Clinton's separate meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders over the next few days. V-O-A's David Gollust is traveling with the President in New York.

TEXT: The President is turning to the author of one of the administration's biggest foreign policy successes for the delicate job of fact-finding in the Middle East crisis. Former Senator Mitchell was Mr. Clinton's mediator for Northern Ireland and was instrumental in reaching the Good Friday peace agreement two years ago.

Mr. Mitchell, who is of Lebanese extraction, will head a carefully-balanced five-member panel that will include a Jewish former Republican U-S Senator, Warren Rudman.

The other members are Spanish diplomat and former NATO chief Javier Solana, Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjorn Jagland, and former Turkish President Suleyman Demirel, whose country has close ties with Israel and Arab nations.

The Palestinians had pressed for an inquiry and it is one of the elements of the truce agreement Mr. Clinton hammered out with Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak last month in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

The Palestinians contend the violence - which has lasted nearly six weeks and killed more than 180 people, mostly Palestinians - was provoked by a visit to the Muslim Haram As-Sharif holy site in Jerusalem's old city by right-wing Israeli politician Ariel Sharon.

Israel maintains the violence began before the Sharon visit and was a premeditated effort by the Palestinians to force additional Israeli concessions in peace negotiations.

A White House statement said the Mitchell panel will provide an "independent and objective" review of the current crisis with the goal of preventing a recurrence.

It also said for the inquiry to succeed, both parties must fully implement pledges made at Sharm El-Sheikh including a mutual pullback of forces and an end to incitement.

U-S officials said U-N Secretary General Kofi Annan was consulted on the formation of the panel and will be briefed on its work - an apparent gesture to Mr. Arafat who had wanted an investigation under U-N auspices.

The announcement of the inquiry comes in advance of a White House meeting set for Thursday between Mr. Clinton and chairman Arafat, and a separate meeting between the President and Prime Minister Barak on Sunday.

A spokesman said fulfilling the Sharm El-Sheikh understandings will be the priority issue at both meetings but that Mr, Clinton would explore possible ways to resume a peace dialogue between the parties. (Signed)

NEB/DAG/JWH