|
Home>News Center>World | |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
Rice urges cooperation on Gaza withdrawal
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met on Saturday with Palestinians leaders after saying they must plan together with Israeli officials for this summer's withdrawal of Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip.
"There needs to be clarity about what to expect," Rice told reporters Friday, en route to Jerusalem. "That, I think, will lead to less confusion on what is likely to be, under the best of circumstances, a pretty complicated day." Both sides are afraid that without coordination, militants and looters would fill the vacuum Israel leaves behind after 38 years. Rice was holding talks Saturday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and members of the Cabinet, including Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia, Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Kidwa and Interior Minister Nasser Yousef. "I'm certainly going to talk with President Abbas about the need ... for the Palestinians to play a critical role in providing a secure environment in which the Gaza disengagement can take place," Rice said during her trip from Washington. "Obviously, that means that the calm that he has discussed with the various Palestinian factions is going to have to hold," she said, adding that he must be tough with the militant group Hamas. In southern Gaza on Saturday, Palestinian militants attacked a settlement, leading to a gun fight that killed one of the attackers and wounded a second, the army said. No soldiers or residents were injured. Rice's meeting with Sharon was set for Sunday in Jerusalem. It was part of her weeklong trip to the Middle East and Europe. Israel's planned August withdrawal from all 21 Jewish settlements on Gaza and four of the 120 in the West Bank is a major benchmark of progress toward an eventual peace deal. "What they are doing is moving thousands of people with their effects, and families, and it's going to be complicated," Rice said before the talks with the Palestinian leaders. "I know Israel has done a lot of planning; I know the Palestinians have done a lot of planning. Our goal is to make sure they are doing their planning together," said Rice, who was in the region in February and held talks then with Abbas and Sharon. The U.S. is taking a mostly hands-off approach to the peace process. Rice warned Israel not to complicate the path to peace through new Jewish settlements just as the Gaza pullout date nears. "We don't intend that the Israelis try to create facts on the ground," Rice said during the flight from Washington. "They simply cannot engage in activities that are supposed to prejudge," the final terms of a peace settlement. Palestinians charge that Israel has tried to force territorial concessions by building settlements and outposts on land that would presumably one day belong to a separate Palestinian homeland. The two sides are arguing now over whether Israel will build more than 3,000 new homes near Jerusalem. The U.S. long has supported the idea of two democratic states for Israelis and Palestinians. But it has not always been clear about the details. Recently, however, the Bush administration has made the no-new-settlements issue very plain. With Abbas at his side at a White House meeting last month, President Bush made clear his support for a Palestinian state within the rough outlines of the current West Bank and Gaza territories. He warned Israel not to complicate matters through settlements or other actions that make it physically difficult to construct viable Palestinian borders. International concern about the Gaza plans centers on whether Israeli settlers will put up a fight and whether militants opposed to peace might try to disrupt the departure with violence. In addition, there is the question of whether the Palestinians can sustain a working government and keep a lid on violence once the Israelis leave. Rice gave a cautious endorsement of Palestinian progress to organize and train an effective security force. "In terms of the Palestinians' apparent determination to streamline their security forces into a manageable number of forces that can then be trained and act professionally, I think they are making progress on that," she said. "In terms of their ability to fight terror and what they do on a day-to-day basis, frankly I do think more could be done," she said.
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
|
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
