Rice changes itinerary in bid to broker Israel-Palestine agreement
Ms Rice delayed her departure from the Middle East for Asia in hopes of announcing an agreement on technical issues regarding the opening of some crossings in the Gaza Strip.
“We are still working some issues on both sides,” Rice spokesman Sean
McCormick said.
Ms Rice planned to make a quick trip from Jerusalem to Jordan for a condolence call after the terrorist bombings that killed nearly 60 people at three Amman hotels last week. She was to return to the Israeli capital last night local time to work further on the border issue.
She urged Israelis and Palestinians to capitalise on the opportunity for peace and co-operation offered by Israel’s unilateral pull-out from the long-occupied Gaza, saying a deal is “in sight” on the border issues.
Questions of security and authority at routes in and out of Gaza have stalled progress between the two sides since the Palestinians took nominal control of the seaside territory bordering Israel two months ago.
As she has done three other times this year, Ms Rice shuttled between Jerusalem and the Palestinian headquarters in Ramallah with a mix of praise and pressure for both sides. She saw Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon over breakfast, then held a long one-on-one session with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the old offices where Mr Abbas’s predecessor, Yasser Arafat, holed up before his death last year.
The top US diplomat used coded language to say that Israel should not build more illegal outposts in the West Bank or use a security barrier now under construction to effect a land grab before the borders of an eventual Palestinian state are fixed. And she said the Palestinians must do more to disarm and counter the militant group Hamas. In a raid early yesterday, Israeli troops killed Hamas’ top military commander in the northern West Bank, Amjad Hanawi, according to Palestinian medical officials and neighbours.
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