JERUSALEM, 2 August 2007 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice yesterday a began a visit to Israel and the West Bank with a call to seize new opportunities. In talks in the region, Rice has been trying to inject new momentum into peacemaking between Israel and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ West Bank government after the takeover of the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists in June.
“Israel is not going to miss this opportunity, we are not going to miss the opportunity to promote a dialogue with Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian government,” said Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, with Rice at her side. Livni said it was important to put “significant” issues on the table with the Palestinians but indicated the Israeli government was not yet ready to accept Abbas’ proposal to negotiate so-called final-status matters.
“Sometimes it is not wise to put the most sensitive issues first,” she said when asked whether Israel was prepared to look at the most difficult issues such as future borders with a Palestinian state, Jerusalem and refugees.
Riyad Al-Malki, the Palestinian information minister, said in the West Bank city of Ramallah the Palestinian government would ask Rice “to put pressure on the Israeli side to respond to our security needs.” Malki defined those needs as a withdrawal of Israeli forces from positions around major West Bank cities and an expanded Israeli amnesty for wanted Palestinians.
Rice said she aimed in her visits to Jerusalem and to Ramallah today, where she will meet Abbas, to take advantage of “mutual opportunities” to advance a two-state solution between the Israelis and the Palestinians. “This is a time to seize opportunities and it is a time to proceed in a prepared and careful way as one does not want to miss opportunities because of a lack of preparation but it is nonetheless a time when we have to take advantage of what is before us,” said Rice.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s office said he hoped many Arab countries would come to the gathering. “This meeting can grant an umbrella for the bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians,” a statement from his office said.
Jordan’s King Abdallah yesterday urged a clear timetable for the international peace conference, the palace said in Amman. During a meeting with visiting Abbas, the king “stressed the need for a clear timetable and an action plan to guarantee the success of the conference,” the statement said. The monarch warned that “wasting more time will have dangerous repercussions on the future of the Palestinian issue.”
Meanwhile, nearly 1,600 Palestinians out of 6,000 stranded in Egypt for weeks have made it back to Gaza since Israel started allowing them passage last week, an Egyptian security source told AFP. As many as 574 Palestinians reached the Al-Oja (Nizana) cargo crossing on the Egypt-Israel border, south of the divided town of Rafah, the official said in Gaza City. Israel initially only approved the entry of 627 Palestinians, of which 413 crossed Sunday and Monday, before agreeing to allow in another 1,000.
