March 24, 2008	Monday	Rabi-ul-Awwal 15, 1429

RAMALLAH, March 23: US Vice President Dick Cheney warned the Palestinians on Sunday that attacks on Israel were killing hopes for their “long overdue” state, as the sun set on his Easter weekend peace push.

Cheney made his first trip as vice president to the West Bank for talks with moderate president Mahmud Abbas, following a string of meetings with senior Israeli leaders.

“A difficult but immutable truth must continue to be told: Terror and rockets do not merely kill innocent civilians, they also kill the legitimate hopes and aspirations of the Palestinian people,” the vice president said.

At his joint press conference with Cheney, Abbas offered “condemnation and rejection” of the rocket attacks but pointedly declared that peace efforts required Israel to halt military raids and expanding settlements.

“Security and peace will not be realised with the continuation of the settlement activities, the establishment of roadblocks around cities and villages, the military escalations in the Gaza Strip, and the continuing military operations in the cities and towns of the West Bank,” he said.

Cheney repeated his message to Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert upon arrival on Saturday that a peace accord “will require tremendous effort at the negotiating table, and painful concessions on both sides.” Israeli settlements in the occupied West Bank are one of the main snags that have hampered the peace talks since they were relaunched under US stewardship at an international conference four months ago.

US President George W. Bush hopes for an agreement by year’s end, ahead of leaving office in January 2009.

“This can be done, and if all concerned stay at the work, success will be achieved,” said Cheney. “The establishment of a state of Palestine is long overdue and the Palestinian people deserve it.” Cheney — whose trip took him to Iraq, Afghanistan, Oman, and Saudi Arabia, and a planned stop in Turkey — also discussed Middle East peace efforts and Iran when he met earlier with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

“We don’t have too much time. But this is the finale, maybe, of a very long chapter in the Middle East and we have to try, all of us, to make the best of it,” Peres said as they met at his residence.

Peres also noted fierce anti-Israel rhetoric from Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, including calls for the Jewish state to be wiped off the map, and warned “We have to take it seriously, out of experience.”

‘’We’re obviously dedicated to doing all we can as an administration to try to move the peace process forward, and also obviously actively involved in dealing with the threats that we see emerging in the region — not only threats to Israel, but threats to the United States, as well,” Cheney replied.

The US vice president, who met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert upon arrival on Saturday, was to see him at breakfast on Monday to wrap up his mission here before heading to Turkey.

With Olmert at his side, Cheney had promised an “unshakeable” defence of Israel’s safety from attack and promised “the United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security.” Israel and the Palestinians formally relaunched negotiations under US stewardship at an international conference in November, but have been divided since on the issue of Israeli settlements and violence in and around Gaza.

Cheney also said that he hoped to banish “the darkening shadows of the situations in Gaza, in Lebanon, in Syria, and in Iran, and the forces there that are working to derail the hopes of the world.”

The vice president’s visit was part of a US diplomatic flurry before Bush returns here in May for the 60th anniversary of the founding of the Jewish state.—AFP