Last update - 00:00 16/03/2007
Rice addresses PA with Livni prior to Middle East visit
By Shmuel Rosner, Haaretz Correspondent
WASHINGTON - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will visit the Middle East and Israel in about 10 days, before the Arab League summit in Riyadh on March 28-29.
On Wednesday, Rice met with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Washington and the two discussed ways to respond to the formation of a Palestinian unity government, and the Arab peace initiative.
Rice expressed the "need for an Israeli-Arab reconciliation to accompany ... the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," a view shared by Livni.
Earlier this week, Livni called on the Arab leaders not to wait for the resolution of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict before they establish relations with Israel. Livni, who was addressing an AIPAC conference in Washington, said that normalization of ties with Israel could contribute to solving the conflict.
Israeli sources expressed their satisfaction with Rice's statement that "as we are working to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, we need to work also toward Israeli-Arab reconciliation."
Rice also said that the Saudi initiative is not a "negotiating document" but "a document that puts forward a position" by the Arab world. On the other side is the Israeli position, she said.
The secretary of state said she had not spoken to Arab leaders over the need to change the document.
Livni believes that the fact that Israel has expressed a clear position on the initiative, and has made it clear to the other side what issues constitute "red lines" (such as the refugee problem), has pushed the discussion in a desirable direction.
Israel is satisfied with the dialogue developing in the Arab world regarding the question of whether and how it is possible to change the initiative so that it may serve as a basis for negotiations with Israel.