 US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Israel yesterday in an uphill bid to revive stalled peace talks after ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas issued a defiant appeal for acceptance of his pact with Hamas. “This (unity government) agreement was the best we could get."
| “This agreement was the best we could get. We cannot change it. You either take it or leave it,” |
"We cannot change it. You either take it or leave it,” a Palestinian official said of Abbas’s message to Assistant US Secretary of State David Welch during preparatory talks in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
After a surprise trip to Iraq, Rice was scheduled to meet Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem yesterday night. She will hold separate talks with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert today, laying the groundwork for a three-way summit in Jerusalem tomorrow.
The summit was overshadowed by the threat of an American and Israeli boycott of the power-sharing government between AbbasÂ’s Fatah and Hamas Islamists. Initially billed as an opportunity to discuss establishing a Palestinian state, Israeli officials said the summit would focus instead on disagreements over the unity deal.
Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rdainah, said the Palestinians hoped to convince the United States “that this is the only possible agreement, that the government must be given a chance.” Rice said Washington would wait to see how the unity government takes shape before deciding on US policy.
| Take your time Condi, don't be in a rush. Might take months, even years, to see if we should change. |
Earlier this week, however, senior Palestinian officials and western diplomats said Washington had warned Abbas it would shun the new government, including non-Hamas ministers, if it does not recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals as called for by the “Quartet” of Middle East mediators. Abu Rdainah said yesterday: “The American position has not been crystallised.”
Senior Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said Palestinians hoped the three-way summit would “launch a quiet channel, as ineffectual President Abbas has requested, to explore how to get to our objective of a Palestinian state.” |