Rice Pressuring Olmert and Fayyad Before Fall Conference?

U. S Secretary Rice to secure a joint Israeli-Palestinian statement

14 October 2007

by Rami Almeghari

U.S Secretary of States, Condoleezza Rice arrives in Palestine and Israel today in preparation for the next month’s Annapolis peace conference for the Middle East, Washington called for earlier.

Rice is expected to first meet with Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert and his Palestinian counterpart, Salam Fayyad, later in the day.

Rice’s main concern is securing a joint Palestinian-Israeli statement before the peace summit commences, particularly after both sides have yet failed to reach a common ground on contentious outstanding issues.

The now top Palestinian negotiator, Ahmad Qurai, stated yesterday that unless Palestinians and Israelis reach an agreement, Washington will have to postpone the conference.

“If both sides fail to reach an agreement, the consequences will be grave”, Qurai added.

Palestinians had earlier believed that a period of six months is enough for both them and the Israelis to conclude a peace deal that tackles all outstanding issues, including the problem of Palestinian refugees, Jerusalem and borders of future Palestinian state.

From his part, Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, did not abide by any time frame to reach a final peace agreement with the Palestinians.

Whilst Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah, voiced his hope that the next month’s summit will bring concrete results, his Gaza-based deposed Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya, of Hamas, warned of ‘falling’ in what he termed ‘the American trap’

In 2000, a similar Washington-sponsored Palestinian-Israeli peace summit, known then as Camp David 2, failed to fill in the gap between the two sides, a failure that led to the outbreak of Palestinian-Israeli violence, branded as the Palestinian Intifiada ‘uprising’.