Rice to press Israel for new peace gestures
AFP
Date: 11-10-05
SHANNON, Ireland (AFP) - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, seeking to give a boost to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas ahead of crucial elections, said that she would press Israel to make new conciliatory gestures in the peace process.
Rice made her remarks to reporters en route to her first Middle East swing since Israel's withdrawal from Gaza in September, which has so far failed to become the catalyst for peace talks that Washington had once forecast.
The top US envoy pointedly referred to the Palestinian parliamentary elections scheduled for January, when Abbas' Palestinian Authority and Fatah faction will face a strong challenge from the militant Islamic movement Hamas.
"I think that it's extremely important that we follow up on some of the efforts that are being made to give a clear indication in the Gaza that life is going to get better for the Palestinian people as a result of the withdrawal and as a result of PA leadership," she said.
Rice was due to meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Monday and she made it clear that the agenda would include Israeli commitments made in a February summit with Abbas in the Egyptian resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The summit, which sealed a ceasefire, included Israeli agreements to free Palestinian prisoners, ease roadblocks on the West Bank and eventually hand back control of six towns there.
"I look forward to talking to Prime Minister Sharon ... about what more can be done on the Sharm el-Sheikh agenda and in what time frame that can be done," Rice said.
"Now I understand that there are continuing security concerns and we are mindful of those, and we are of course not going to ask Israelis to do anything that endangers the security of their people.
"But we would hope there is more that could be done on those Sharm el-Sheikh arrangements and we'll talk about that."
Rice said the timing of the handover of the six towns was a security matter that she would discuss with Sharon and also Abbas, whom she will see afterward in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
"I think the prior issue is, can we get Palestinian security forces to a point that they can reliably provide security," Rice said. "And so I'll probably spend more time on that."
Rice's first Middle East swing since July comes at a delicate moment, with little sign of movement towards Israeli-Palestinian peace talks two months after Israel's vaunted pullout from Gaza.
Talks continued on reopening the border between Egypt and the Gaza Strip, and US officials said the transportation of goods between Israel and the Palestinian territories would be high on Rice's agenda.
Rice told reporters that the Israelis and Palestinians were making "a lot of progress" on the issue of the Rafah border crossing between Egypt and Gaza and were working on mostly technical issues.
"I think there is a lot of political will to get them resolved," Rice said.
Rice was scheduled to attend a conference on Middle East democracy in Bahrain and then fly to Saudi Arabia for talks with one of Washington's closest regional allies before heading for Israel.
She will later head the US delegation to the APEC ministerial meeting Tuesday and Wednesday in Pusan, South Korea, that will set the stage for the November 18-19 summit to be attended by President George W. Bush.
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