Rice Urges Extension of Gaza Cease-Fire
30 November 2006
New truce, Israeli peace offer might speed progress toward two-state solution
Washington –- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Palestinian and Israeli leaders November 30 that the United States wants to see the current cease-fire in Gaza consolidated and extended to the West Bank as part of a comprehensive truce.
“Hopefully we can take this moment to accelerate … and intensify our efforts toward the two-state solution that we all desire,” Rice said at a press conference in the West Bank city of Jericho with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
Rice’s visit comes five days after Israeli authorities withdrew troops from Gaza in exchange for Palestinian militants’ agreement to end rocket attacks into Israeli communities bordering the territory. Despite a few isolated incidents, the cease-fire has ended five months of violence that has claimed the lives of 400 Palestinians and three Israeli soldiers. (See related article.)
Speaking from Amman, Jordan, earlier in the day, President Bush reiterated U.S. support for the centerpiece of his administration’s road map to Middle East peace: a two-state solution.
“I believe it's in the Palestinian people's interest that they have their own state and I believe it's in Israel's interest that there be a democracy on her border and therefore we're working to that end,” he said.
Rice’s meeting with the Palestinian president, she said, focused on ways to help both parties move forward. “The creation of a viable, independent, democratic Palestinian state that can live side-by-side in peace with Israel would be not just a remarkable achievement but a just achievement,” Rice said. (See related article.)
Such a state, she said, must be “viable and contiguous.” She cautioned against any actions that could prejudge the outcome of a final status agreement, such as further expansions of Jewish settlements into Palestinian territory.
Rice also expressed support for the development of a strong Palestinian security force to serve and protect its citizens, as well as ongoing efforts by Abbas to reform and strengthen Palestinian democratic institutions.
Rice said the United States remains a leading aid donor to the Palestinian people through nongovernmental organizations, but she said that “it would be possible for the international community to do more” if the Hamas-led government would agree to recognize Israel, renounce violence and support the peace process. (See related article.)
She also called on Israel to ease movement restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank.
“The daily difficulties and humiliations that are associated with life for the Palestinian people simply must be eased," the secretary said, adding that the United States also is working with Egypt to ease border crossing into Gaza.
RICE PRAISES ISRAELIS’ “WEEK OF PROGRESS”
Following her meeting with Abbas, Rice traveled to Jerusalem where she met with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and praised his latest efforts to reach out to the Palestinians. She reiterated her hope that the cease-fire can be “consolidated and then extended.”
“It has been a week of progress, a week that we hope can be consolidated,” Rice told reporters in a brief press appearance with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. “The cease-fire now needs to be consolidated by actions to make certain that it is enforced.”
In a November 27 speech, Olmert offered the Palestinians humanitarian and economic incentives conditioned on the cessation of violence and the release of Israeli Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped in June. (See related article.)
The secretary praised the speech, calling it “a hand reaching out to a Palestinian partner.”
After her meetings in Israel and the Palestinian territories, Rice will travel to a Jordanian Dead Sea resort where she will meet with representatives from the six Gulf Cooperation Council states -- Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates -- as well as Jordan and Egypt, to discuss the Middle East peace process and other regional security issues.
“We do believe that we need to do everything we can … to try and help move this process forward,” State Department deputy spokesman Tom Casey said November 30 “because the ultimate solution to the Israeli-Palestinian problem is to be able to achieve the president's vision of a two-state solution.”
Transcripts of Rice’s remarks and Casey's briefing are available from the State Department Web site.
For additional information, see The Middle East: A Vision for the Future.
(USINFO is produced by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)
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