Mideast Peace Talks Recess in Uncertainty

The fragile Mideast peace talks recessed in rancor and uncertainty yesterday as the United States struggled to get feuding Arabs and Israelis talking about a settlement of their 43-year conflict.

Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians agreed to meet Sunday to discuss the procedure for direct talks between Israel and each of the Arab delegations. But Syria, which objects to Israel's proposal to hold the next round in the Middle East, withheld a decision on attending Sunday's session pending consultations with its Arab allies.

On the third and final day of the ceremonial opening phase, enmity permeated the Hall of Columns of Madrid's Royal Palace. Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir labeled Syria a tyrannical regime, and Syria's foreign minister waved a 1948 "wanted" poster of Shamir, accusing him of involvement in the assassination that year of a Swedish diplomat.

Secretary of State James A.Baker III, after failing in private to win Syria's commitment to attend Sunday's meeting, closed yesterday's session by sternly lecturing the participants.

"From the perspective of most of the rest of the world, it would be very difficult to understand how a party could now refuse to attend bilateral negotiations simply because of a disagreement over the site", said Baker, the architect of the first Arab-Israeli peace conference in almost two decades.

Arab delegates met last night and an Arab official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the Syrians were seeking a delay of two or three days before holding the procedural session. The Palestinians were pushing for Sunday, however, and further discussion was scheduled today, the official said.

Even if the sides convene for procedural talks on Sunday, Baker still must resolve the dispute between Israel and Syria over where to proceed afterward.

If there is no resolution, U.S. officials said last night, Baker simply may issue invitations to all the parties. A possible site would be Washington, a Compromise between Israel's insistence on the Mideast and Syria's demand to stay in Madrid, the officials said on condition of anonymity.

Baker telephoned President Bush, who was in Houston, and kept working behind the scenes with the delegation in Madrid.

Baker told Bush he was "pleased with the way the conference had gone so far," said presidential spokesperson Marlin Fitzwater.

As the maneuvering was under way in Madrid, Israeli jets bombed a stronghold of the pro-Iranian Hezbollah, or Party of God, in southern Lebanon, Lebanese authorities said.

In Lebanon and Egypt, thousands of hard-line Muslims demonstrated against the Madrid talks and some in Cairo chanted "God, kill all the Jews!" A senior Iranian cleric, Ayatollah Musavi Ardebili, called on Arabs to overthrow their leaders for negotiating with Israel.

Signaling its willingness to participate in bilateral talks, Israel appointed the heads of delegations to negotiate separately with Syria, Lebanon and the Jordanian-Palestinian team.

But Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted the negotiations be shifted to the Middle East. That would force the Syrians, Jordanians and Lebanese to go to Israel, implicitly recognizing the Jewish state.