Global Policy Forum

By John Kifner

The Israeli foreign minister, Shimon Peres, told the United Nations secretary general, Kofi Annan, today that Israel would be willing to have the United Nations send a representative to look into the Israeli military action in the Jenin refugee camp in the West Bank.

Mr. Peres' offer — made in a noontime telephone call — came during a day of backroom diplomatic maneuvering by Israel and the American delegation here aimed at avoiding an American veto in the Security Council of a strongly worded Arab resolution expressing shock at reports of a massacre there and calling for a formal United Nations investigation.

To that end, diplomats here said, the Americans, with the cooperation of the Israelis, drew up a substitute resolution late this afternoon that "welcomes the initiative of the secretary general, with the cooperation of the Government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, to develop accurate information regarding recent events in the Jenin refugee camp through a fact-finding team and keep the Security Council informed."

The American resolution was unanimously adopted at 8:50 this evening after minor wrangling over the language.

In the delicately nuanced diplomatic language, what was being described as a personal initiative of the secretary general was seen as being much less threatening to Israel than a formal order by the Security Council for an official investigation.

Further, diplomats here noted, the phrasing "to develop accurate information" suggested that the information now in circulation — such as Palestinian accusations that there was widespread killing of civilians during the Israeli incursion into the camp — could still be found to be inaccurate.

An Israeli mission's news release issued tonight describing the conversation between Mr. Peres and Mr. Annan pointedly noted, "The foreign minister did not suggest, nor did he agree, to the establishment of an international commission of inquiry."

Mr. Annan himself had not heretofore given a high priority to an investigation. On Thursday, he made a strong presentation to the Security Council calling for a "robust" multinational peacekeeping force in the area. Meeting journalists later, he was asked about the status of an investigation into the events at Jenin.

"We haven't initiated a formal investigation as such," Mr. Annan had replied. "For the moment, I would prefer we concentrate on getting assistance to those in need, to those who have been trapped in that camp and I think the time will come for an investigation to be undertaken, but that is not my first priority at this stage."

Israeli officials were stunned on Thursday when the United Nations special envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, called the scene at the Jenin camp "horrifying beyond belief."

Israel, faced with increasing international calls for an investigation into the attack on Jenin, has begun mounting its own defense, contending it was a careful military operation against entrenched gunmen. Its effort dovetailed with that of the United States today. The American ambassador here, John D. Negroponte, has said that the United States would prefer to have no resolution passed at all but that the Americans are wary of stirring more hostility in the Arab world with a Security Council veto.

"This was an effort by the Americans to head this off at the pass," said a long-serving diplomat here of the substitute resolution. "And the Israelis have a need to dig themselves out of a P.R. hole with Jenin."

Mr. Peres' phone call was made at noon, a United Nations spokesman said, which is 8 p.m. in Israel, after the country closed down for the Jewish sabbath. Thus any immediate political discussion has effectively been foreclosed. Indeed, there had been no mention tonight of Mr. Peres's offer on Israeli media. The news release issued here tonight by the Israeli mission said that "after consulting with the prime minister," Mr. Peres had told Mr. Annan "that Israel has nothing to hide regarding the operation in Jenin."

The Israeli Defense Forces "faced a fierce battle against armed terrorists who deliberately hid among a civilian population," it continued. "The I.D.F. did its utmost to prevent harm to innocents, and our hands are clean."

The Israeli announcement said that "Foreign Minister Peres offered to present all the information Israel has to a representative of the secretary general that will come to clarify the facts." The United States' draft "emphasizes the urgency of access of medical and humanitarian organizations to the Palestinian civilian population."

One problem for the Arab delegations in considering the language of the American resolution, a diplomat noted, is that it makes no specific mention of Israel's role in the events at Jenin. The original Arab draft also called for the immediate Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian cities, unhindered access for aid workers and an end to the seige of the headquarters in Ramallah of Yasir Arafat, the Palestinian leader, and of Palestinian gunmen in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem.

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