Rice stresses need for viable Palestinian state

There can be no Arab-Israeli peace unless the Palestinians gain a state that satisfies their aspirations for independence, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said before meeting with a top adviser to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon.

Rice said a Palestinian state was “within our grasp”. Israel must recognise, she said yesterday, that the state must be viable and contiguous, which means it would have enough land to function well.

Due in Israel and the West Bank for talks next Monday, Rice telegraphed her message in a conversation with State Department employees.

Rice urged Arab states to stop incitement to violence, but her emphasis was on the necessity of Israel’s yielding territory and “creating conditions in which a new Palestinian state could emerge”.

Sharon has volunteered to give up Gaza and a few Jewish settlements on the West Bank, but otherwise he has not indicated how much additional land he would turn over to a Palestinian state.

Rice’s remarks in a State Department auditorium preceded a meeting with Sharon’s chief of staff for an assessment of prospects for peacemaking with the Palestinians.

The unannounced meeting with Dov Weisglass was designed to bring Rice up to date on the prospect that Sharon might hold talks with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and on chances of a ceasefire.

Israeli Ambassador Daniel Ayalon said Weisglass was emphasising “the importance of broadening security cooperation so that it will lead to more cooperation for disengagement” in Gaza.

Rice is planning to see Abbas on the West Bank. She has pledged to play a personal role in Middle East diplomacy, and her talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders in the area will be her first effort to insert the Bush administration in a process in which the two sides seem to be making progress on their own.

Rice intends to stop in Israel on a trip to Europe that begins Thursday.

Her predecessor, Colin Powell, taking his cues from US President George Bush, played a limited personal role after deciding that the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat was inept, corrupt and involved in attacks against Israelis.

Arafat’s death and the election of Abbas have opened what many perceive as an opportunity for negotiations on an overall accord.

In Jerusalem, Jewish settlers and their supporters protested outside parliament for a second day. They oppose Sharon’s plan to remove all Israelis and all troops from the Gaza Strip and to turn it over to the Palestinians as a first step toward their state.