US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice won yesterday a Saudi
pledge of support for a US-backed Middle East peace conference and
began a visit to Israel and the West Bank with a call to seize new
opportunities.
In talks in the region, Rice has been trying to inject new
momentum into peacemaking between Israel and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas' West Bank government after the violent takeover of
the Gaza Strip by Hamas Islamists in June.
"Israel is not going to miss this opportunity, we are not going
to miss the opportunity to promote a dialogue with Mahmoud Abbas
and the Palestinian government," said Israeli Foreign Minister
Tzipi Livni, with Rice at her side.
Livni said it was important to put "significant" issues on the
table with the Palestinians but indicated the Israeli government
was not yet ready to accept Abbas' proposal to negotiate so-called
final-status matters.
"Sometimes it is not wise to put the most sensitive issues
first," she said when asked whether Israel was prepared to look at
the most difficult issues such as future borders with a Palestinian
state, Jerusalem and refugees.
Riyad al-Malki, the Palestinian information minister, said in
the West Bank city of Ramallah the Palestinian government would ask
Rice "to put pressure on the Israeli side to respond to our
security needs".
Malki defined those needs as a withdrawal of Israeli forces from
positions around major West Bank cities and an expanded Israeli
amnesty for wanted Palestinians.
Rice said she aimed in her visits to Jerusalem and to Ramallah
today, where she will meet Abbas, to take advantage of "mutual
opportunities" to advance a two-state solution between the Israelis
and the Palestinians.
"This is a time to seize opportunities and it is a time to
proceed in a prepared and careful way as one does not want to miss
opportunities because of a lack of preparation but it is
nonetheless a time when we have to take advantage of what is before
us," said Rice.
Rice flew to Israel from Saudi Arabia, where Foreign Minister
Prince Saud al-Faisal said Riyadh welcomed US President George W.
Bush's initiative to hold a Middle East peace conference later this
year. No date or venue has been set.
"There is an international movement (for peace) ... Israel
should respond to these pressures," Prince Saud said, without
promising that Saudi Arabia would attend the conference.
(China Daily via agencies August 2, 2007)
