LINDA STOUFFER, CNN ANCHOR: With just weeks left in his administration, President Clinton continues his efforts to broker a Middle East peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians. CNN's Matthew Chance joins us live right now from Jerusalem with a report on the issues that are being discussed. Hello there, Matthew.</s>MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Linda. And it is a time of crucial decision making in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak saying that Israel would accept the blueprint for a compromise peace proposal, proposed last week by the outgoing U.S. president, Bill Clinton, in Washington. But speaking on Israeli television, Mr. Barak made it quite clear that that acceptance would depend very much on the Palestinian leadership doing the same. This is what he had to say.</s>EHUD BARAK, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER (through translator): It will be very difficult for us to refuse to discuss the ideas of President Clinton. And if the other side will respond affirmatively, we'll also find ourselves in great difficulty to respond negatively.</s>CHANCE: Details about those U.S. proposals remains pretty much unclear. Both sides have been very tight-lipped about exactly what's being discussed or what's under consideration. But there's speculation in the Israeli media, have spoken of far-reaching compromises on the key issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict; mainly the status of Jerusalem and the final borders of Israel and what to do with the Jewish settlements on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip, and also on the issue of the right of return for Palestinian refugees. Now, the Palestinians have all along, publicly at least, been downplaying these proposals, saying they still leave wide gaps between the two sides on those key issues. Only yesterday here, on Monday, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Yasser Arafat, spoke of the obstacles that remain along the path of peace. And within the last few hours, a senior adviser to Mr. Arafat has said that the Palestinian leadership needs more time and more clarification before any final decision is reached. That decision, of course, expected in Washington by Wednesday. Back to you, Linda.</s>STOUFFER: Matthew Chance, thank you very much.
Crisis in the Middle East: President Clinton Continues Efforts to Broker Peace Agreement