Rice trying to stay positive about peace summit

A Middle East summit bringing together Israel’s prime minister and the Palestinian president with US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is due to start today.

However, the talks are set to be hampered by an incoming Palestinian government that will not explicitly recognise Israel.

Prospects for the summit’s success appear to be dim because of the uncertainty of the Palestinian political situation and the weakness of the Israeli leadership.

Last week Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas appointed prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas to form a new government, bringing Abbas’ Fatah back into power alongside the Islamic Hamas.

A week earlier, at a meeting in Mecca, Saudi Arabia, the two agreed on a formula that does not recognise Israel, renounce violence or accept previous peace accords, as the West has demanded in exchange for restoring vital foreign aid.

Olmert said yesterday that Israel would not deal with such a government, and he said US president George Bush agreed with that.

US officials said Olmert does not speak for Washington.

Olmert’s own position is tenuous. After an inconclusive war last summer in Lebanon, Olmert’s approval rating has plummeted below 20%, leaving him politically unable to carry out far-reaching concessions that would be needed for a peace accord with the Palestinians.

Rice has tried to keep a positive outlook. In an interview with the Palestinian daily Al-Ayyam, published today, Rice said: “This is a complicated time, and it is been made more complicated by the (Palestinian) unity government, but I’m not deterred, and I’m not going to wait until the condition is perfect somehow to bring the parties together.”

Rice told the newspaper that the US goal is still an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel, following the “road map” peace plan presented by Bush in 2003.

However, She admitted that agreement is not at hand, and her expectations of the summit were low.

“I don’t even assume that we are going to come to a common view of what needs to be discussed in this initial meeting,” she said.

In talks with Rice yesterday, Abbas portrayed the power-sharing deal as an achievement, saying it has helped moderate the anti-Israel Hamas.

Abbas also emphasised that he, not the government, would handle any negotiations with Israel, and Rice assured him the US would continue dealing with him, his aides said.

In the interview, Rice said the US would continue to work with Abbas and would reserve judgment on the new Palestinian government until it takes office.

In Syria, the exiled deputy leader of Hamas called on the United States and the international community to deal positively and reasonably with a Palestinian national unity government.

Moussa Abu Marzouk yesterday accused Washington of “fully adopting Tel Aviv policies” and urged the Bush administration “to take a reasonable stand and look positively” toward the new Palestinian government.

Abu Marzouk, who lives in exile in Syria along with Hamas’ political leader Khaled Mashaal, told reporters in Damascus that the Palestinians are used to Washington’s “negative” stand but the group must deal with the US administration “out of the fact that the US is the only superpower which has influence over Israel.

Rice met later yesterday with Olmert, but no details of the talks were released.

Rice told Al-Ayyam that while she was not bypassing the first phase of the “road map", calling for Palestinians to dismantle violent groups and Israel to dismantle settlement outposts, she said she would ask the sides to look ahead at what would be needed for a Palestinian state – but she made no pledges of quick progress.

The road map plan stalled over the inability of the two sides to carry out the first phase. Palestinians have also rejected the second stage – a provisional state with temporary borders. The third stage is a full-fledged Palestinian state next to Israel.

The only concrete outcome Rice hoped would emerge from the summit was agreement to fully implement an accord she hammered out to allow freer passage of Palestinian people and cargo through Gaza crossings.