RAMALLAH, West Bank, 3 August 2007 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that the “Arab peace initiative is a positive element toward proceeding for a two-state (Palestine and Israel) solution and achieving peace between Israel and its neighbors.”
Speaking at a joint news conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his Ramallah headquarters, Rice said that the international peace conference, announced last month by President George W. Bush, “is not to get people together for a photo opportunity but rather so that we can really advance Palestinian statehood.”
Sources close to Rice said yesterday that the proposed peace conference, which would include Israel and moderate Arab states, may convene in Washington in November. The Israeli newspaper Yediot Ahronot quoted the sources as saying that Rice’s Wednesday meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert resulted in the decision that the US would continue to use its influence on moderate Arab countries to convince more of them to take part in the conference.
Olmert told Rice he welcomed Saudi Arabia’s support for a Middle East peace conference, adding he hoped more Arab states would do the same.
At the Ramallah news conference, Rice declared that Olmert was ready to discuss “fundamental issues” that should lead to the creation of a Palestinian state.
Rice said regional leaders, including those in Saudi Arabia, told her during her current Middle East trip that the conference must deal with issues of substance. “Prime Minister Olmert told me last night that he, too, shared that view, that this was a meeting that ought to be and needs to be substantive and meaningful and that will, in fact, help get to a two-state solution,” Rice said.
Olmert’s office said in a statement that the Israeli leader “shares the same approach, that the international meeting will be serious and meaningful, and that he welcomes the participation of leaders of Arab countries in the meeting.” Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who met Rice Wednesday, said the main negotiations must be directly between Israel and the Palestinians, and Israel hopes for agreement on any issue that can push the process forward. Interviewed by Israel TV yesterday, she hoped Arab states that do not have relations with Israel would attend the conference in the fall, because “the Arab world can support Israel when Israel is making the right steps regarding the Palestinians.”
Abbas on his part signaled willingness to work on a declaration of principles as a step toward a full peace deal. Up to now the Palestinians have insisted on talks toward a peace treaty with no interim steps. Olmert floated the idea of a declaration of principles last week, but Abbas had not commented on it until yesterday.
Earlier, Rice met with the entire Cabinet of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, a gesture of support for the team of moderates that replaced the Hamas government after Hamas seized Gaza by force. Rice was introduced to the ministers, then addressed them in the Cabinet room. Hamas considers the West Bank-based Fayyad government, installed after the Gaza takeover, illegitimate. The US and Israel hope to isolate the Hamas government in the Gaza Strip while lavishing money, and political legitimacy on Abbas and his new government.
Yesterday, Rice signed an agreement granting the Palestinians $80 million for reform of their security services, a crucial element in the Fatah-Hamas power struggle. Abbas’ Fatah forces fell surprisingly quickly before a Hamas onslaught in Gaza last month. Restructuring and training Fatah-linked forces in the West Bank are seen as crucial to keep Hamas at bay there.
Hamas denounced the latest show of US support for Abbas. “Rice did not come to the region to establish a Palestinian state, as she and her master Bush claimed, but instead she came to support one Palestinian party against another, and to support the Zionist occupation,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
— Additional input from agencies