Rice Calls for Substantive Mideast Peace Meeting
02 August 2007
Secretary says all sides are eager for progress towards two-state solution
Washington – An upcoming international meeting on Israeli-Palestinian efforts to achieve a two-state solution will be a forum for substantive discussions, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told Palestinian journalists in Ramallah August 2.
“This is to call people together so that we can really advance … Palestinian statehood,” she said.
President Bush July 16 called for a Middle East peace conference this fall to be led by Secretary Rice and include Palestinians, Israelis and regional neighbors who support creation of a Palestinian state. (See related article.)
Rice said that many of the leaders with whom she has met during her current four-day trip to the region, including Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al Faisal and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, expressed a desire to see the fall meeting produce tangible progress towards the two-state solution.
The secretary said Olmert “is ready to discuss fundamental issues that will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state,” and she urged the Israelis and Palestinians to deepen their dialogue on these issues.
Rice welcomed a recently revived Arab League peace initiative as a useful element in advancing regional peace negotiations. In the initiative, the Arab League proposed full normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders, the creation of a Palestinian state and a right of return for Palestinian refugees displaced during the various Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.
While in Ramallah, Rice and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad also signed an $80 million assistance package aimed at supporting efforts to reform and professionalize the Palestinian security forces. Rice said the ability to provide security for the population is a core responsibility of any functioning government.
For more information on U.S. policies, 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)
|
NEWSLETTER
|
| Join the GlobalSecurity.org mailing list |
|
|
|
