CLINTON-YELTSIN TALKS: ARMS CONTROL AND CHECHNYA.

During nearly five hours of talks in Moscow yesterday, Clinton and Yeltsin did reportedly make progress on resolving long-standing differences over the 1990 Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty (CFE) and the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty (ABM). While the two men provided few details, Clinton suggested that resolution of the impasse on CFE might be achieved by May 15, when the treaty is set to be reviewed. On the ABM Treaty, Clinton claimed that progress had been made in "distinguishing between anti-ballistic missile systems that are limited by the ABM Treaty and theater missile defenses, which are not." (Reuter, April 21)

Despite the fact that Russian troops had suffered one of their bloodiest setbacks in the war only days earlier, Clinton did not challenge Yeltsin’s assertion during their new conference yesterday that military actions in the Caucasus had ceased. And while Clinton called for a diplomatic solution to the conflict, he also compared the war in Chechnya to the U.S. Civil War and to the "proposition that Abraham Lincoln gave his life, that no state had a right to withdrawal from our union." (The Washington Post, April 22)

Israeli Bombing Intrudes on Summit…