Clinton to Meet With Barak and Arafat in Switzerland

JERUSALEM — President Clinton will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat in Switzerland on Saturday to try to boost Middle East peace, a Palestinian official said today.

The meeting, to be held on the sidelines of the annual World Economic Forum meeting in the Swiss resort of Davos, will be the first for the three leaders since they met in November at a memorial ceremony in Norway for slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin.

Speaking from Brussels on his way back from the United States, Palestinian Authority Cabinet member Nabil Shaath said the talks this week are intended to iron out a method for meeting a Feb. 13 target date for a framework accord on a treaty.

Meanwhile, Egyptian leader Hosni Mubarak showed support for Syria during talks in Damascus with President Hafez Assad, Syrian spokesman Joubran Kourieh said Saturday.

“The Egyptian side expressed backing for Syria’s position in peace talks with Israel calling for an Israeli withdrawal [from the Golan Heights] to the June 4, 1967, lines,” Kourieh said. “The talks covered the peace process and the obstacles that emerged on the Syrian-Israeli track and contacts taking place regarding it.”

A third round of U.S.-mediated talks between Barak and Syrian Foreign Minister Farouk Shareh, which had been scheduled for last week, was called off because the two sides could not agree on an agenda.