Rice, Olmert, Abbas meet amid low expectations

Jerusalem, Feb 19: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Israeli and Palestinian leaders today for talks overshadowed by a Palestinian unity deal that has cast a new cloud over prospects for peacemaking.

Seeking to lower expectations, Rice said the three-way meeting in a Jerusalem hotel with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would amount to ''informal discussions'' rather than negotiations.

''This is not something that I expect to move along very quickly,'' Rice told reporters travelling with her.

''I expect to have conversations that are at a pace to allow real discussion and not to try to drive some outcome because if you ask people to run at this point, I think somebody is going to fall down, and that's probably not a good thing.'' A joint news conference was not planned after the talks but officials from all sides have been working in recent days to come up with a statement that indicates a commitment to past Israeli-Palestinian agreements and a wish to move ahead.

''The meeting, which was initiated by the Americans, will be no more than a photo opportunity,'' said a senior Abbas aide. ''We hoped the meeting could revive peace talks in a serious manner, but the Israelis will do whatever they can to make it fail.'' Rice spent yesterday shuttling between the Israelis and the Palestinians, trying to agree an agenda for the talks which have been complicated by an agreement between Abbas's Fatah party and the Islamist movement Hamas to form a coalition government.

The deal helped stop Palestinian factional warfare that killed 90 people in recent weeks.

But it fell short of meeting terms set by a Quartet of mediators, the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, for resuming aid to the Palestinian Authority cut off when Hamas was voted into power a year ago.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said yesterday Israel and Washington agreed to boycott the coalition, which has yet to be formed, if it did not meet the demands to recognise the Jewish state, renounce violence and accept existing interim peace accords.

Israeli officials have said the main focus of today's talks would be the unity government.

Abbas said he would explore with Rice and Olmert ''the horizon for the peace process'' and discuss the unity accord struck in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, earlier this month.

Bogged down in Iraq, the United States has been seeking progress on the stalled Israeli-Palestinian diplomatic track.

It has said it would like both sides to start talking about the tough issues, such as the contours of a new Palestinian state, refugees and the status of Jerusalem.

Rice, however, made clear that while the US administration reserved judgment, any new Palestinian government would have to meet the terms laid down by the Quartet.

''We are going to wait until there is a government but it should be absolutely clear to everybody that the Quartet principles are going to govern what decision we make,'' Rice said before the trilateral meeting.

In an interview with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, she said it was important to deal with those Palestinians, such as Abbas, who accept the mediators' conditions.

The relationship with Abbas, Rice told the left-wing daily, ''is going to remain intact''.

REUTERS

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