Last update - 00:00 28/09/2006
Rice to visit Mideast to push Arab-Israeli peace process
By Shmuel Rosner and Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondents and Reuters
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice plans to visit the Middle East next week in an effort to revive peace moves between Israel and the Palestinians, the State Department said on Thursday.
Rice will leave Washington on Sunday and plans to visit Israel, the Palestinian territories, Egypt and Saudi Arabia during her trip, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters at his daily briefing.
The announcement comes in the wake of talks between Arab leaders and U.S. officials in recent weeks. The view in the Bush administration is that the war in Lebanon has led to growing concern in Arab capitals over the threat posed by Iran to the stability in the region. As such, the Americans would like to take advantage of this attitude and convert ideas into diplomatic action.
Secretary Rice said on Tuesday "moderate states do not wish Iran to gain too much power in the region," and explained that the United States intends to continue working with moderate states in the Middle East "in order to block Iran's ambitions."
Meanwhile, the administration has decided to give more time to talks with Iran, before renewing its efforts at the UN Security Council in support of sanctions against Tehran for its refusal to freeze its nuclear program.
At a press briefing in the State Department Wednesday, Sean McCormack said that the administration had accepted the request of Javier Solana, European Union special foreign policy troubleshooter, for more time for another round of talks with the Iranian negotiating team.
Solana held talks in Berlin on Wednesday with Iran's chief negotiator on the nuclear issue, Ali Larijani.
An American official said Wednesday that Rice's tour of the Middle East "is meant to give a practical expression to the speech of President Bush at the United Nations."
Bush said that he believes that a new and intensified effort may bring about a breakthrough in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
However, for the time being, the American government is having a difficult time developing an overall plan as a result of the lack of certainty concerning the future of relations with the Palestinian government.
Rice intends to ask the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and Jordan to pressure the government of the Palestinian Authority to accept the conditions set by the Quartet - the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia - regarding Hamas. In return for international recognition and aid, the Hamas government, elected earlier this year, was asked to recognize Israel, relinquish the use of force, and accept all previous agreements between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization.
Meeting these conditions, Rice said, would allow talks to take place with the Palestinian government. "As long as there is no partner for negotiations, it is not clear what precisely we can gain," an American official said Wednesday.
Meanwhile on Wednesday, the Shi'a speaker of the Lebanese Parliament, Nabi Beri, described the American administration's view of the Middle East as "superficial."
Beri also accused the United States of what he described as its aim to control the natural resources in the area through its support for Israel, a "terrorist state."
Referring to comments by Secretary Rice that the Shi'a community in Lebanon was divided, Beri said that the Shi'a community was united.