Last update - 00:00 14/10/2007
Rice: Only focus on core issues can advance the peace process
By Aluf Benn and Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondents, and Agencies
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Trade Minister Eli Yishai on Sunday that only discussions on core issues can bolster the Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Rice earlier downplayed the likelihood of an immediate breakthrough on a document that would outline details of a future peace deal between the two sides.
Israeli and Palestinian teams of negotiators are currently working together to hammer out a joint statement ahead of a U.S.-sponsored Annapolis peace summit scheduled for the end of November.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert announced Sunday that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni would head the Israeli team of negotiators.
The secretary of state also met Sunday with Ehud Barak, hours before he was to leave on his first visit to Washington as defense minister.
Barak told Rice that Israel would dismantle one permanent roadblock on the road connecting Bethlehem and Hebron in the West Bank as a gesture of goodwill toward the Palestinians.
Barak added that the Palestinian Authority has yet to complete the daily deployment of 500 Palestinian police officers in the West Bank city of Nablus during daytime hours, a move which Rice approved during her last visit to the region.
The defense minister reiterated to Rice that Israel's freedom to implement security measures within the West Bank is a basic principle which must be upheld in the future.
Barak addressed the appointment of Livni as the head of the Israeli negotiation team and said that "this is a good and deserving appointment. Livni strives for peace while still being clear and exact in protecting Israel's interests, qualities which will allow for serious negotiations."
Rice, in the region in a bid to advance the joint statement, warned journalists earlier Sunday not to expect any breakthroughs on the document during her visit.
"I don't expect... that there will be any particular outcome in the sense of breakthroughs on the document," the secretary of state told reporters as she flew to Tel Aviv from Moscow.
"I would just warn in advance not to expect that, because this is really a work in progress," she said, holding out the possibility she would return to the region in a few weeks.
Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has been pressing for a document that includes a timetable for dealing with the central issues of borders, the future of Jerusalem, and Palestinian refugees, as well as moving closer to Palestinian statehood.
Olmert favors a vague statement that is more of a declaration of principles, so he can keep the religious Shas party and right-wing Yisrael Beiteinu from bolting his coalition government.
American officials said in preparatory talks that the U.S. would not issue invitations to the summit before the sides have formulated the document.
Rice was expected to try to convince Olmert that the statement must be "concrete" and present a "diplomatic horizon" to the Palestinians.
Rice's meeting with Yishai and another one set to take place with Yisrael Beiteinu Chairman Avigdor Lieberman were aimed at gaining an understanding of their objections and concerns.
Yishai told Rice that "if they come back with a document of principles focusing on the core issues, it would be enough to threaten the stability of the coalition."
He added that the issue of the division of Jerusalem between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is out of the question. He said "any deal signed at this time will only be a partial agreement."
Since the Palestinian Authority has two heads, he said referring to rival parties Fatah and Hamas, "only a financial anchor can stabilize the PA." Yishai told Rice that he would be willing to meet with his Palestinian counterpart to assist in the authority's financial advancement.
Olmert said Sunday that "the process will be cautious and well-considered, with the intention of reaching a joint declaration."
"This declaration is not a condition, and never was a condition, for holding this conference in November."
The prime minister told the cabinet that he expects the conference to be followed by "discussions on the possibility of founding a Palestinian state." But, he said, "setting a timetable for this process in advance would create more problems than it would solve."
"The success of Rice's efforts requires reaching a clear statement that will include the final status issues, in addition to stopping the settlement projects that aim to isolate Jerusalem and divide the West Bank," Abbas aide Nabil Abu Rudeinah said Sunday.
Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad Malki said Sunday that the Palestinians would not allow Olmert to use the conference as a public relations stunt.
"Without a document to resolve this conflict, we can't go to the conference next month," he said. "Olmert is looking for a public relations conference and one that will allow normalization with Arab countries... We will not help him in this."
Livni, for her part, has also been markedly cautious in her approach to the negotiations.
In recent months, she has publicly warned against high expectations for the conference, especially in the wake of various reports according to which Israel has agreed to compromise on core issues like Jerusalem, borders and a safe passage for Palestinians between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
Like Olmert, the foreign minister has said she believes that the joint statement should address final status issues in the most general manner possible. She would like detailed negotiations to begin only after the summit, thereby rendering the conference a launching point for a process, and not its conclusion.
Livni does, however, believe that the joint statement should encourage a detailed description of the security, economic and diplomatic infrastructure of a future Palestinian state.
Livni's Palestinian counterpart in the negotiations is former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qureia. Olmert said he came to understand that Qureia's presence necessitates a senior government official as head of the team.
The foreign minister's representative has thus far been Aharon Abramovitch, the ministry's director general. It is still unclear whether Livni will take part in all of the team's meetings.
Livni did not attend Sunday's cabinet meeting because she is still mourning her mother, Sara, who died last week. She is expected to return to work Monday, and meet with Rice on Wednesday.
Senior U.S. State Department officials want the document to present the principles for a permanent status agreement and to leave the details for subsequent bilateral talks. For example, the declaration could determine the formula for exchanges of territory on either side of the Green Line, and leave for subsequent discussion the question of which territories would be exchanged.
Concerns have been mounting in Washington that the talks may falter because of the high expectations of the Palestinians as reflected in their public statements. The Americans are worried that the Palestinians are entrenching themselves in positions from which they will have difficulty compromising, and that Israel cannot accept.
For example, last week Abbas said the area of the Palestinian state should be 6,502 square kilometers, which is the area of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip according to the 1967 borders.
Other senior Palestinians said that in secret talks between Olmert and Abbas, Olmert did not reject the idea that the talks would be based on the proposal Israel gave the Palestinians at the Taba talks in January 2001 at the end of Ehud Barak's term as prime minister. That proposal involved Israel's withdrawal almost entirely from the West Bank and agreement to accept tens of thousands of Palestinians. Israeli sources said Olmert agreed to no such thing.
Rice will also try to persuade Abbas to check his expectations, which if overblown could lead to a breakdown in the talks even before the Annapolis meeting. U.S. officials said in the preparatory sessions that Rice in part agreed with Livni and Barak that overly high expectations should not be encouraged.
The officials said, however, that Rice believes that "on the outside expectations should be lowered, but inside the [the] bilateral talks expectations must remain high because only then is there a chance that the joint declaration will constitute progress and achievements."
Related articles: