Last update - 00:00 06/03/2008
Israeli, Palestinian negotiating teams likely to meet Thursday
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent
The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams are likely to meet Thursday, following Wednesday's announcement by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in Jerusalem of resumption in talks.
The talks were interrupted at the beginning of the week due to the escalation in Gaza.
Rice made her announcement at a joint press conference in Jerusalem with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.
The committee, whose purpose is to monitor the implementation of the road map, is chaired by Gen. William Fraser, who was appointed by Rice. Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad are also onboard.
Rice told the press conference she was concerned about the situation in the West Bank. She said that so far the parties had not done enough to meet their obligations according to the road map in terms of the Palestinians fighting terror and the Israelis evacuating outposts. She said the tripartate committee on security, headed by Gen. Fraser, would meet for the first time next Thursday.
Rice said Hamas was holding the people of Gaza hostage and was now "trying to make the path to a Palestinian state hostage to them. And we cannot permit that."
Rice also said that "the rocket attacks against Israel ought to stop. And as I've said, as Israel defends itself, Israel also needs to be very careful about innocent people who get caught in the crossfire, about the humanitarian conditions in Gaza."
Livni told the press conference that "since Hamas took control of the Gaza Strip, we adopted a dual strategy. And when I say we, I mean the international community and, of course, the United States of America, Israel, and the pragmatic leaders in the Palestinian Authority. The idea is to work with diplomatic leaders, to try and reach a peace treaty with them, while simultaneously working in order to delegitimize Hamas as a terrorist organization and to find an answer to these terror attacks coming from the Gaza Strip to Israel."
She said that "in facing the threat coming from the Gaza Strip, it is important to understand that Israel left the Gaza Strip, we dismantled settlements, we took our forces out. So it's not part of our ideology to be there, but we need to give an answer to the lives and to security of Israeli citizens who are under daily attack from the Gaza Strip."
Meetings between the Israeli and Palestinian representatives on the resumption of talks are taking place on three levels: meetings between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Abbas, between Livni and Ahmad Qureia on the core issues, and work groups consisting of experts from both parties on various civil issues.
A meeting is apparently to take place on Thursday between one of the working groups or between Livni's and Qureia's advisers. The Olmert-Abbas meeting will apparently be held next week.
Related articles: