GAZA CITY, 15 January 2007 — Visiting Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday pledged a renewed US push for peace but Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas rejected any temporary solution to the Middle East conflict. Abbas said at a joint press conference with Rice after the two met in Ramallah that he “emphasized our refusal to any temporary solutions, including temporary borders or a temporary state, because we do not believe that these would be viable.”
“What we need is active movement from all international parties...to achieve a durable and continuing peace...so that the region and the people enjoy peace and security.” His talks with Rice followed a series of meetings Saturday between the top US diplomat and Israeli officials on how to kick start the internationally drafted peace road map which aims at the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who met Rice on Saturday, last month floated a peace plan that envisaged a Palestinian state with temporary borders before a final settlement is reached.
Rice — on her third visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories in four months — said the road map should be accelerated, but did not provide any specific steps to revive the blueprint that has remained largely untouched since its launch nearly four years ago. “The US is deeply committed to find ways to accelerate progress on the road map,” Rice said alongside Abbas. “The US is absolutely committed to helping find a solution” and to building on what she called “the momentum currently in Israeli-Palestinian relations to build on a political horizon.”
Rice also defended reports that Washington is to provide the Abbas-led Palestinian Authority with more than $80 million to train its security forces.
“The American contribution is part of an international effort to train Palestinian forces,” she said. Reports of the funding came amid deadly factional clashes in the Gaza Strip between Abbas’ Fatah party and the ruling Hamas movement, which is boycotted by the West as a “terror” group.
On the eve of Rice’s visit, Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh accused Washington of working with Israel to push the Palestinians toward civil war.
Yesterday, Hamas spokesman Ghazi Hamad said: “I think she is trying to refine the political track that failed, but without bringing any new ideas.” Abbas said he hoped Rice’s visit would mark “the beginning of negotiations that will lead to a halt of the war in our region and to the establishment of a Palestinian state.” He said his administration was committed to ending the factional fighting in Gaza, which has killed more than 30 people in the past month.
“We will exert our utmost efforts to impose law and order and to boost the legal security forces,” he said. Abbas reiterated that if talks with Hamas on forming a national unity government failed to bear fruit, “we will go back to the people of Palestine to hold early legislative and presidential elections.” His call on Dec. 16 for early elections was rejected by Hamas and triggered weeks of fighting between supporters of the Islamist movement and their Fatah rivals.
Rice was due to travel to Amman later yesterday to meet Jordan’s King Abdallah before returning to Jerusalem for talks today with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem have suggested that Rice may not be pushing a firm peace plan because of the political weakness of both Olmert and Abbas.
Olmert, whose approval ratings have plunged to 14 percent, is facing the possibility that a new graft investigation may be opened against him while Abbas remains mired in his power struggle with Hamas. Rice will also visit several Arab capitals where she hopes to rally support for a new US strategy in Iraq and to counter alleged Iranian interference in the war-ravaged country. Her trip comes two days after President George W. Bush set out the new policy to quell surging sectarian violence in Iraq with the deployment of 21,500 more troops. Bush also declared a new initiative against Iranian and Syrian elements, which the United States accuses of destabilizing Iraq. Rice said her trip was aimed at strengthening moderates in the region, but her trip has been greeted with skepticism, even among staunch allies in the Gulf.
Meanwhile, President Abbas will visit Syria later this week for peace talks with Hamas’ exiled political chief as well as Syrian officials, Palestinian officials said yesterday. The talks between Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal would aim at negotiating a new coalition government and ending weeks of Palestinian infighting that have claimed 35 lives.
Aides from Abbas’ Fatah party had said the Palestinian president could meet with the leader of Hamas as early as today, but Hamas officials said the tentative meeting had been postponed to the coming Saturday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity.
In Ramallah, Abbas said it remained “premature” to discuss his meeting with Meshaal. He did not elaborate.
Abbas spoke late Saturday with Haniyeh to discuss the coalition talks. A meeting of Palestinian factions was scheduled for later yesterday in Gaza.
The two rival Palestinian factions have made repeated attempts to form a coalition Cabinet but failed because of disagreement over key Cabinet posts.
— With input from agencies
