JERUSALEM, Nov 4: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice heard a strong message from Israel on Sunday that security must precede the creation of a Palestinian state, as she sought to bridge gaps ahead of a peace meeting.
Making her eighth visit this year for shuttle diplomacy between Israel and the Palestinians, Rice lowered expectations of an imminent agreement on a joint document for the US-sponsored conference she hopes could revive peace talks.
“The meaning is security for Israel first and then the establishment of a Palestinian state because nobody wants to see another terror state in the region,” said Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, greeting Rice for breakfast.
“Though we need to find a common ground with the pragmatic (Palestinian) leaders, they need to understand that the implementation of future understandings will be implemented only according to the... roadmap.”
The internationally drafted peace plan has made next to no progress since it was adopted in June 2003, and has already missed its first deadline for creating a Palestinian state living in peace alongside a secure Israel.
Israeli negotiators, headed by Livni, and their Palestinian counterparts have been divided for weeks over a joint document they are supposed to draw up for the meeting aimed at reviving the peace process after a seven-year hiatus.
Not a single word has yet been written for the conference document and wide gaps remain between Israel and the Palestinians, although both sides have agreed that commitment to the roadmap would be part of the statement.
The Palestinians want the document to tackle the most intractable problems of the conflict — namely borders, refugees and the status of Jerusalem — and a timetabled implementation, while Israel favours a looser statement.
“I don’t expect to reach an agreement on a document,” Rice told reporters travelling on her plane to Tel Aviv late on Saturday.
“They are going through some knotty discussions and I think those knotty discussions are going to continue for a while, but I will go out and see if there is anything that I can do to help this move along,” she said.
“They are working, they are working a lot. I just want to help make sure that they are working in a straight line ahead.”
Rice later met Defence Minister Ehud Barak before scheduled talks with international Middle East envoy Tony Blair, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and an address to the Saban Forum think thank in Jerusalem.
On Monday, she is to meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, Ahmed Qorei who heads the Palestinian negotiating team and Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank political capital of Ramallah.
Deputy Prime Minister Haim Ramon, a key Olmert ally, said at the weekend that Israel wants a peace deal with the Palestinians before US President George Bush leaves office in early 2009.
But he said Israel would continue to resist Palestinian demands for a firm timetable to solve the most divisive issues of the conflict.
Abbas has called for a six-month deadline for a final status deal with Israel, insisting: “We will not accept leaving these questions open for ever.”
No firm date has yet been announced for the US meeting, and Arab powers likely to be invited to the conference have been sceptical about its chances of success without any serious effort to address the concerns of all involved.
The Islamist movement Hamas, which has ruled the Gaza Strip since a bloody takeover in which security forces loyal to Abbas were defeated nearly five months ago, has rejected the conference altogether.
Israeli air strikes and shelling killed four Palestinians in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip on Sunday, after militants fired three rockets toward the Jewish state, medical and security officials said.
Barak warned last week that every day brought closer the prospect of a full-scale Israeli military operation in the Gaza Strip, where more limited raids have been unable to curb rocket fire.—AFP
