WEST BANK: Press conference by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after talks to broaden fragile ceasefire and to revive stalled peace talks in the Middle East.

Record ID: 561216

  • Title: WEST BANK: Press conference by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas after talks to broaden fragile ceasefire and to revive stalled peace talks in the Middle East.
  • Date: 30th November 2006
  • Summary: EXTERIOR OF HOTEL WHERE U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE AND PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS ARE SCHEDULED TO MEET SIGN READING 'INTER CONTINENTAL'
  • Embargoed: 15th December 2006 12:00
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  • Reuters ID: LVA98XLPSPLKI9M3PU0YBOGAMOFO
  • Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she hoped Israelis and Palestinians would broaden their fragile ceasefire as she began a new push on Thursday (November 30) to revive stalled peace talks in the Middle East.
    With Rice at his side, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he had reached a "dead end" in talks on forming a unity government with Hamas Islamists, seen by Washington and Israel as the biggest obstacle to peacemaking.
    "As we know a unity government is one of the main and important aims for us. If we will have a unity government it will end the siege on the Palestinian people we tried and worked hard but unfortunately we are at a dead end," Abbas said in the joint news conference held in the West Bank town of Jericho.
    Rice, who met Abbas in the oasis-like town of Jericho and later moved to Jerusalem for talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, said she wanted to build on a truce that took hold in the Gaza Strip at the weekend.
    "We would hope for a more comprehensive ceasefire," Rice said. Both Olmert and Abbas support widening the ceasefire to the occupied West Bank too.
    Arab allies of Washington such as Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia are pushing hard for the United States to become more involved in trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict in the hope that this will help the situation in Iraq.
    Peace talks collapsed in 2000 before the start of a Palestinian uprising. Hopes that negotiations could be revived sank further after Hamas Islamists won Palestinian elections in January and took over the government.
    Abbas has been engaged in so far fruitless efforts to form a unity government with Hamas or get the group to agree to Western demands to recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept past peace accords.
    But he said talks with Hamas were now at an impasse, his strongest indication yet that he had abandoned the effort.
    The collapse of talks could open the door for Abbas to try to appoint a government more acceptable to the United States, which has spearheaded a Western aid blockade of the Hamas-led government since it came to power in March.
    "Unfortunately, because there is not a government with which the international community can deal it is very difficult to do more, pass the humanitarian side, and we do believe that were there a government that accepted international standards ... it would be possible of course for the international community to do more if the international principles were respected," Rice said in Jericho.
    Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, speaking before Abbas made his comments, said in Cairo that "the door must not be closed." Some fear the collapse of talks could lead to civil war.
    Israel has demanded the establishment of a Palestinian government that recognises its right to exist, as well as the release of an Israeli soldier captured in June by Gaza gunmen, as a precondition for major peace moves.
    In Amman, U.S. President George W. Bush emphasised his backing for strong moves by Abbas.
    Ismail Rudwan, a Hamas spokesman, accused Bush of "trying to plant seeds for sedition to encourage a civil war".
    Rice is also seeking Olmert's cooperation in bolstering Abbas's presidential guard and is pressing Israel to ease travel restrictions for Palestinians, as she has on previous visits.
    After meeting the Palestinians and the Israelis, Rice is set to go to the Dead Sea in Jordan to meet ministers from the Gulf Cooperation Council as well as Egypt and Jordan.
    In one early sign of progress in reviving peace talks, Egypt's intelligence chief met Olmert on Wednesday to discuss a possible exchange of Palestinian prisoners for an Israeli soldier held by militants in Gaza.
    Following those talks, Israel released one of the Hamas government ministers it detained after militants abducted Corporal Gilad Shalit in June. It was not immediately clear whether the release could be part of a broader exchange.
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