MIDDLE EAST: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says U.S. will deepen its role in Middle east peace process, Hamas rejects intervention/ Peace activists protest against Israeli occupation

Record ID: 791940

  • Title: MIDDLE EAST: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says U.S. will deepen its role in Middle east peace process, Hamas rejects intervention/ Peace activists protest against Israeli occupation
  • Date: 14th January 2007
  • Summary: (BN11) RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (JANUARY 14, 2007) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS AND U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE CONDOLEEZZA RICE APPROACHING PODIUM
  • Embargoed: 29th January 2007 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVA38ICJKB5YJ00OOYMEVFPOPFGL
  • Story Text: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a bid to bolster President Mahmoud Abbas, has vowed to expand Washington's role in the peace process with the goal of moving
    toward a Palestinian state.
    Rice said on Sunday (January 14) the United States was "deeply committed" to finding ways to accelerate the stalled "road map" peace plan in order to "show to the Palestinian people how we might move toward the establishment of a Palestinian state."
    "I have stressed to the secretary of state our rejection of temporary solutions, including provisional borders for our state," Abbas said with Rice at his side at a press conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
    Palestinians fear such temporary borders would become final, leaving them with a truncated state.
    Rice offered no details on how Washington would expand its involvement. Israeli officials said Rice was exploring several options, including the creation of a Palestinian state with temporary borders, an idea rejected by Abbas.
    The United States wants Abbas to emerge victorious in his showdown with the ruling Hamas Islamists, a group Washington labels a terrorist entity.
    Abbas and the ruling Hamas have been trying to reach agreement on the formation of a unity government but talks have stalled amidst a spiral of factional violence. The president announced early elections as talks reached a deadlock.
    The United States plans to pour $86 million USD into helping train and equip Abbas's presidential guard.
    Rice met Israeli ministers on Saturday (January 13) but said she had not come to the region with a specific plan to jump-start Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that collapsed in 2000.
    The road map peace plan has not moved past the first stage because of the failure of the Israelis and the Palestinians to meet their obligations -- Israel is supposed to halt settlement building in the West Bank while Palestinians must dismantle militant groups. The second stage outlines a Palestinian state with provisional borders.
    "I have heard loud and clear the call for deeper American engagement in these processes," Rice said.
    In Gaza, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said on Sunday that the Palestinian government reject U.S. efforts to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians.
    In the West Bank city of Nablus at the Hawara checkpoint, demonstrators protested against Israeli occupation and the use of checkpoints which restrict travel for many Palestinians.
    Some demonstrators dressed as Native Americans to make their point. They held signs reading, ""The Indian wars are not over Mrs. Rice... We are still here, too!"
    Another sign, "Is this our reservation," alluded to allotments of land in the United States where Native Americans were often sent to live, after American settlers claimed their land. The formation of reservations is controversial in American history. Thousands of Native Americans died in transit to the reservations, and at reservations sometimes ill-equipped to maintain their populations.
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