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Cheney warns Palestinians
23/03/2008 17:04 - (SA)
Ramallah, West Bank - US Vice President Dick Cheney warned on Sunday that Palestinian strikes on Israel, including rocket attacks, "kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations" for a Palestinian state.
"A difficult but immutable truth must continue to be told: Terror and rockets do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people," Cheney said during a joint public appearance with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
Cheney, making his first trip here as vice president, held talks with Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad after meeting with top Israeli officials in Jerusalem as part of an effort to revive Middle East peace talks.
US President George W Bush hopes to see Israel and the Palestinians forge a deal by year's end, before he leaves office in January 2009. Bush plans to return to the region in May for the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel.
"As President Bush has said, the establishment of a state of Palestine is long overdue and the Palestinian people deserve it," Cheney said on the latest stop in a nine-day tour of the region.
"The United States will commit resources to help the Palestinians build the infrastructure necessary for a stable, secure, and prosperous democracy in a society led by a government that joins in the fight against terror and honours the aspirations of all its people," said Cheney.
Abbas meanwhile called once again for Israel to take action on the ground by halting settlement activities and military incursions into the occupied territories.
"Security and peace will not be realised with the continuation of the settlement activities and the establishment of roadblocks around cities and villages," Abbas said.
He also called for an end to "military escalations" in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip from which his forces were routed in June, and demanded that Israel halt military incursions in the West Bank, where his moderate government rules.
Cheney however cautioned that achieving a peace agreement would require "painful concessions" from both sides.
"It will also require a determination to defeat those who are committed to violence and refuse to accept the basic right of the other side to exist," he said, alluding to Hamas.
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