VARIOUS: UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE ANNOUNCES U.S. SECURITY COORDINATOR IN THE MIDDLE EAST
Record ID:
222905
VARIOUS: UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE ANNOUNCES U.S. SECURITY COORDINATOR IN THE MIDDLE EAST
- Title: VARIOUS: UNITED STATES SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE ANNOUNCES U.S. SECURITY COORDINATOR IN THE MIDDLE EAST
- Date: 8th February 2005
- Summary: (W2) JERUSALEM (FEBRUARY 7, 2005) (REUTERS) 1. MV U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE WALKING DOWN CORRIDOR 0.09 2. MV RICE SEATED WITH ISRAELI VICE PREMIER SHIMON PERES 0.23 (W2) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (FEBRUARY 7, 2005) (REUTERS) 3. SLV U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE'S CONVOY ARRIVING AT THE MUQATA, THE LATE YASSER ARAFAT'S COMPOUND; MV RICE WAVING TO CAMERAS AS SHE ENTERS MUQATA COMPOUND; LAS PALESTINIAN FLAG FLYING FROM ROOF 0.42 (BN08) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (FEBRUARY 7, 2005) (POOL) 4. MV RICE MEETING PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS / SHAKING HANDS; MV DIPLOMATS SEATED BESIDE ABBAS AND RICE 1.05 (BN11) BEN GURION AIRPORT, NEAR LOD, ISRAEL (FEBRUARY 7, 2005) (REUTERS) 5. MV RICE APPROACHING PODIUM 1.22 6. (SOUNDBITE) (English) RICE, SAYING: "I am pleased to announce the naming of U.S. Army Lieutenant General William Ward as senior U.S. security coordinator to assist the Palestinian Authority to consolidate and expand their recent efforts on security and encourage resumption of Israeli-Palestinian security coordination including, if necessary, through the trilateral security committee." 1.47 7. PAN FROM MEDIA WIDE OF NEWS CONFERENCE 1.58 8. (SOUNDBITE) (English) RICE, SAYING: "As the president has said, the goal of two democratic states - Israel and Palestine - living side by side with peace and security. Much work lies ahead. I conveyed invitations from President Bush to Prime Minister Sharon and President Abbas for meetings with him in the spring and each has accepted." 2.27 9. REPORTER TAKING NOTES; MV RICE LEAVING 2.51 (BN08) GAZA CITY, GAZA (FEBRUARY 7, 2005) (REUTERS) 10. WIDE VIEW OF PALESTINIANS RALLYING IN STREETS TO PROTEST FOR THE RELEASE OF PALESTINIAN PRISONERS BEING HELD IN ISRAELI PRISONS; PEOPLE MARCHING, HOLDING PHOTOGRAPHS OF RELATIVES AND FRIENDS WHO ARE PRISONERS; MV MASKED MILITANTS MARCHING; SLV DEMONSTRATOR IN MOCK ISRAELI PRISON BEING TOWED THROUGH STREETS (8 SHOTS) 3.49 (BN08) KARNI CROSSING, BETWEEN ISRAEL AND GAZA STRIP (FEBRUARY 7, 2005) (REUTERS) 11. MV SIGN AT ENTRANCE TO KARNI CROSSING; SLV FORKLIFT REMOVING CONCRETE BARRIERS THAT HAD CLOSED CROSSING; SLV TRUCKS ENTERING FROM GAZA (4 SHOTS) 4.20 12. SLV DRIVER HANDING IDENTITY PAPERS TO BORDER GUARD BEFORE CROSSING 4.44 Initials Script is copyright Reuters Limited. All rights reserved
- Embargoed: 23rd February 2005 12:00
- Keywords:
- Location: JERUSALEM/ RAMALLAH, WEST BANK/BEN GURION AIRPORT, ISRAEL / GAZA CITY, GAZA/ KARNI CROSSING, ISRAEL-GAZA BORDER
- City:
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Reuters ID: LVA9WGZEUGRE9O5K5VZL51RD1SQ8
- Story Text: Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announces U.S.
security coordinator in Mideast.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice announced on
Monday (February 7, 2005) the appointment of a U.S. general as
security coordinator to help Israel and the Palestinians
protect budding peace moves.
She said new Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, due to meet at a
landmark summit in Egypt on Tuesday (February 8) on halting
more than four years of violence, would visit the White
House in the spring.
Rice, on her first visit to the Middle East since
taking up her post last month, met Israeli Prime Minister
Ariel Sharon on Sunday (February 6) and Vice Premier Shimon
Peres on Monday.
She later travelled to the West Bank city of Ramallah
to hold talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas's predecessor Yasser Arafat is buried in
Ramallah, in the Israeli-battered compound in which he was
confined until close to his death in November.
Entering the Muqata compound, Rice's motorcade swept
past Arafat's tomb without stopping.
The United States shunned Arafat as an obstacle to
peace but Rice's visit showed the Bush administration was
eager to bolster Abbas with concrete measures to support
his efforts to rein in violence since his election last
month.
Ending her Middle East visit, Rice told a news
conference in Tel Aviv that Lieutenant-General William Ward
had been appointed security coordinator.
The move fell short of assigning a U.S. envoy to
oversee peacemaking, which Rice said she preferred be as
free of foreign mediation as possible, and appeared to
underscore a belief new hopes for ending the conflict
rested on halting bloodshed first.
Rice said Ward would "assist the Palestinian Authority
to consolidate and expand their recent efforts on security
and encourage resumption of Israeli-Palestinian security
coordination".
Abbas and Sharon hope to announce an end to hostilities
at the summit in Egypt's Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh,
marking a dramatic return to efforts to revive a
U.S.-backed peace "road map" envisaging a Palestinian state
alongside Israel.
"We have agreed on a ceasefire with the Palestinian
factions ... and we hope that we will get a positive
response from the Israelis on a mutual ceasefire," Abbas,
elected last month on a platform of non-violence, said
after meeting Rice in Ramallah.
In Gaza, where violence has dropped sharply, a
spokesman for the militant Hamas group said it would "study
the outcome of the summit" in Egypt and then decide on its
course of action.
Ward was previously commander of the NATO Stabilisation
Force in post-war Bosnia and had previous assignments to
Egypt, Somalia, Germany and South Korea.
Rice said he would travel to the region in the next few
weeks "to make an initial assessment".
The last monitoring group involved the CIA but it
stopped its work after Palestinian militants killed three
Americans in Gaza in 2003.
Rice's predecessor, Colin Powell, made infrequent trips
to the area and was last in Ramallah in 2002.
U.S. President George W. Bush has pledged $350 million
in aid to the Palestinians. Rice announced $40 million
would be given to them within 90 days in a "quick action
programme" to help in job creation and rebuilding
infrastructure.
Rice called on both sides to the conflict to carry out
their obligations to the peace process, citing a "fight
against terrorism" by the Palestinians and "no unilateral
changes to the status quo" on the part of Israel.
But the issue of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli
jails had threatened to cast a shadow over the summit in
Cairo.
Israel has disappointed the Palestinian leadership by
refusing to include any jailed for deadly attacks among the
900 prisoners it intends to free.
In Gaza city, several thousands of Palestinians from
various militant factions marched to protest the refusal of
Israel to release the prisoners.
Waving Hamas and Islamic Jihad flags, Palestinians
carrying pictures of prisoners in Israeli custody marched
through Gaza city. As part of goodwill gestures to the Palestinians
ahead of the summit, Israel reopened the Karni crossing between
the Gaza Strip and Israel after closing in down roughly one
month ago after a bombing that killed five people.
Israel also said it would reopen the Rafah crossing
between Egypt and Israel and pullback from five West Bank
cities after both sides met.
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