JERUSALEM, 23 July 2005 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon yesterday at the start of a fresh diplomatic push to ensure the success of next month’s pullout from the Gaza Strip.
The three-hour meeting at Sharon’s ranch in the southern Negev desert saw the pair discuss efforts to make the withdrawal of troops and settlers proceed free of violence from Palestinian militants as well as funding, sources said.
A statement from the prime minister’s office said the meeting had taken place in “good atmosphere” with discussion focusing on coordination efforts with the Palestinians and plans to create a “safe passage” for them to travel between the West Bank and Gaza after the withdrawal.
“The discussions were essentially centered around the measures which should be taken to ensure everything goes smoothly, with a minimum amount of friction” (with the Palestinians), a source close to Sharon said.
“The secretary of state and the prime minister also discussed the economic aid to the Palestinians which will be supervised by James Wolfensohn,” he said in reference to the former World Bank chief who has been appointed as the Middle East quartet (Russia, the EU, US and UN) envoy for the disengagement.
Rice and Sharon also held talks on an Israeli request for a $2.2 billion aid package to help fund the pullout, the aide added. A senior Israeli official who met with Rice described the US diplomat’s mission as a “maintenance visit” designed to head off criticism that American involvement in the pullout was less than wholehearted.
“With (British Prime Minister Tony) Blair holding the presidency of the European Union, they (the Americans) wanted to show they are still involved with the disengagement.” Rice, who arrived in Israel on Thursday, is also expected to meet Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah today after her return from a surprise visit to Lebanon.
Her visit comes amid a new upswing in violence that has threatened a fragile truce ahead of the pullout from the 21 Gaza settlements and a small part of the West Bank which is due to begin in less than four weeks.
An Israeli soldier and a Palestinian gunman were wounded in a firefight in the southern West Bank city of Hebron in the latest flare-up yesterday.
Israeli officials called on Rice to pressure Abbas to rein in hard-liners who are trying to portray the pullout as an act of surrender.
Meanwhile, protestors at a rally against Israel’s West Bank barrier donned masks of US President George W. Bush and Rice yesterday, complete with orange blindfolds in a parody of the campaign against the pullout from the Gaza Strip.
