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Rice urges deeper Israeli talks
02/08/2007 16:13 - (SA)
Ramallah - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice pressed Israel and the Palestinians on Thursday to talk about the key issues that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.
The most troublesome of these are the so-called final status matters - the future of Jerusalem, the borders of a Palestinian state and the right of return for refugees.
Israel is balking at such a broad commitment at this stage.
But Rice noted Prime Minister Ehud Olmert had said he was ready to discuss fundamental issues leading to a Palestinian state, though she gave no details.
"There should be a deepening of the dialogue between the Palestinians and the Israelis on all of the issues that will lead ultimately to the founding of a Palestinian state," she told a news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Six weeks after Hamas Islamists took over the Gaza Strip, Rice visited the West Bank to bolster the Fatah leader and his government and promote a US-backed Middle East peace conference due later this year.
Abbas and Olmert are due to meet next week. Israeli officials have spoken of formulating with Abbas "agreed principles" for establishing a Palestinian state.
At the news conference with Rice, Abbas spoke of negotiating what he termed a "declaration of principles". He said it was important for Palestinians "to know what the result will be, what the end game will be".
One senior Israeli government official said Israel was prepared to begin discussing border issues in general terms with Abbas, but saw the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees as too sensitive for the time being.
Olmert told Rice on Wednesday that Hamas, which has rejected international calls to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace deals, had to be "kept out of the game" as Israel explores new co-operation with the Palestinians.
Ahead of her talks with Abbas, Rice signed a framework agreement with Prime Minister Salam Fayyad's government to provide US funding for Abbas's security forces. The agreement outlines terms and conditions under which the money can be used.
A senior official travelling with Rice said the funding was part of about $80m promised by the Bush administration to reform the security forces. An initial amount of about $10m would be handed over, he said.
In a statement, Hamas said the funding showed that Rice "did not come to build a Palestinian state but to build up services of death to pursue resistance factions".
On her four-day trip to the Middle East, Rice won tacit Saudi backing for the regional peace conference proposed by US President George W Bush. A senior US official said it would most likely be held after mid-October.
Analysts are pessimistic about Rice's new push that comes at a time when the Palestinian territories are divided between Hamas, which seized the Gaza Strip in June, and Abbas's secular Fatah whose forces dominate the West Bank.
- Reuters
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