Jordan Times
Sunday, January 14, 2007
King urges Palestinians
to close ranks as Rice begins Mideast tour
US secretary of state says has no specific plan to resolve
conflict, her intention to listen
Agencies
King Abdullah and Palestinian President Mahmoud
Abbas held talks Saturday in Amman and coordinated positions as US Secretary of
State Condoleezza Rice embarked on a fresh effort to revive the
Palestinian-Israeli peace process.
King Abdullah and Abbas reviewed Arab and international efforts to overcome
obstacles facing peace, and the Monarch said the Palestinians should focus on
strengthening their internal front.
“This would help Palestinian peace negotiators restore their legitimate rights
in line with international resolutions and the two-state solution,” the King
told Abbas, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
Rice, who arrived yesterday in Israel, said her talks in the region will focus
on “how to accelerate the roadmap, how to work towards a political horizon”,
Agence France-Presse reported.
The roadmap to the Middle East peace was drawn up nearly four years ago, but has
lain virtually untouched since then. It envisions the creation of a Palestinian
state living in peace alongside Israel.
King Abdullah said the Arab Peace Initiative was a “practical and logical
framework” to resolve the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
On Friday, King Abdullah told US President George W. Bush over the telephone
that Washington should intensify efforts to help revive the peace process.
The King called on Palestinians and Israelis to seize current efforts in the
Middle East, including Rice’s tour, to achieve “positive results that serve
regional aspirations to establish a just and comprehensive peace”.
Rice said yesterday she had not come to the Middle East with a specific plan to
resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but that it was her intention to
listen.
“I am not coming with a proposal. I am not coming with a plan,” she told the
accompanying press during a stopover in Shannon, Ireland.
“A couple of things are crystal clear: If you don’t lay groundwork very well, it
is not going to succeed,” she said.
“And I think no plan can be ‘Made in America’. There are too many important
stakeholders and any progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front is going to
require all of the parties.”
Rice was due to hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders before heading
to Arab capitals to rally support for a new US strategy in Iraq and to counter
Iran’s alleged interference in the war-ravaged country.
Speaking after talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Rice said:
“Indeed this is a very important and challenging time in the Middle East — but a
time that, I believe, does have promise if we exercise our responsibilities with
creativity and with resolve.” Rice said her talks in the region will focus on
“how to accelerate the roadmap, how to work towards a political horizon”.
“Because I think that we both understand fully that for both the Palestinian and
the Israeli peoples, two states living side by side and in peace is not just a
dream, it’s something that we must make a reality.”
Livni said that “part of our responsibility is to give the moderate Palestinians
a political horizon while providing the Israelis security”. “This is part of our
mutual responsibility — to find a way for a better future for all.”
On Sunday, Rice was to travel to Ramallah to talk with Abbas, then to Jordan for
a meeting with King Abdullah late Sunday, before returning to Jerusalem for
talks with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday.
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem have suggested that Rice may not be pushing a
firm plan because of the political weakness of both Olmert and Abbas.
Olmert returned home from a trip to China on Friday amid further allegations of
corruption at the highest levels of Israeli politics and speculation that a new
criminal investigation may be opened against him.
His ratings among Israelis are at an all-time low, with an opinion poll this
week giving him the approval of just 14 per cent of respondents.
As for Abbas, his Fateh Party is engaged in a power struggle with the governing
Islamist movement Hamas that has left more than 30 people dead over the past
month.
He said yesterday it was difficult for him to meet “soon” with Prime Minister
Ismail Haniyeh in Amman on an invitation by King Abdullah to end Palestinian
infighting.
“We need first to create the [suitable] internal circumstances to achieve
tangible results,” Abbas told reporters in Amman.
Hamas refuses to recognise Israel, and is boycotted by Israel and the West as a
“terrorist” group.
Hours before Rice arrived in the region, Haniyeh, a key Hamas leader, accused
Washington of trying to foment a Palestinian civil war.
“The American and Israeli policies seek to push the Palestinian people towards
civil war and internal conflict so that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict becomes
a Palestinian-Palestinian conflict,” he said in a televised address (see
separate story).
Rice said she would be talking with the two sides about “how we can accelerate
the roadmap... and how we begin to talk about the political horizon that
everybody is interested in”. After leaving Israel and the Palestinian
territories, Rice will travel to Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Germany and
Britain.
Her trip comes two days after Bush presented a new strategy to quell surging
sectarian violence in Iraq with the deployment of 21,500 more troops.
Bush also declared a new initiative against Iran and Syria, which the US accuses
of destabilising Iraq.
Rice said that her trip was aimed at strengthening moderates in the region.
“We are determined to resist their [the extremists] efforts and also to
strengthen the hands of those who wish to resist their efforts, because I
believe that most people in the Middle East in fact do want to live in a place
where their children can grow up in peace,” she told reporters in Jerusalem.
Rice said on Thursday that it was vital to counter Iranian influence in Iraq and
the region.
“What we are... looking at is the need to solidify the consensus, the interest
of these states that all fear Iran’s moves in the region, fear the regional
aggression of Iran,” she said.
“I think you will see that the United States is not going to simply stand idly
by and let these activities continue.”