Middle East

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28 April 2008
Rice Plans Full Agenda During Middle East Trip

By Merle D. Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington -- In a five-day trip to Britain and the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice aims to shore up Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and discuss financial aid for the Palestinian Authority with allies. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says Rice also will hold separate meetings with British Foreign Minister David Miliband and Middle East Quartet Envoy Tony Blair.

"In Israel and the West Bank, she will meet with senior Israeli and Palestinian officials to discuss progress made on the ground and in the peace process, the situation in Gaza, and the effort under way to achieve agreement this year on the establishment of a Palestinian state, living side by side with Israel in peace and security," McCormack says.

Rice will travel to Britain, Israel and the West Bank from May 1-5, the State Department says.

Rice is following up on President Bush's January visit to the region after the intensive diplomatic effort begun in late 2007 with the Annapolis Conference on the Middle East to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. She also will discuss the situation created in the Gaza Strip when Hamas seized control from the Palestinian Authority, which continues to maintain control of the West Bank area.

An agreement by January 2009, before Bush leaves office, that will lead to Palestinian statehood is still possible and remains a high U.S. priority, President Bush said during his visit to the region in January and during Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' recent visit to the White House.

Core issues to be resolved in the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are the final borders of a Palestinian state, the future of Jerusalem, Israeli settlements, Palestinian refugees, water and future relations between the two states.

This most likely will be Rice's last visit to the region before Bush returns May 13-18 to attend the 60th anniversary of the founding of Israel. In Israel, Bush will meet with President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and address the Knesset, White House press secretary Dana Perino said April 28 in a prepared statement. The president also will travel to Saudi Arabia and meet with King Abdallah.

In Egypt, Bush will meet with President Hosni Mubarak at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, and also will hold meetings with Jordanian King Abdullah II and Palestinian President Abbas, Perino said. He will wrap up the trip with a speech in Sharm el-Sheikh at the World Economic Forum on the Middle East.

"The president's visit to Israel will celebrate Israel's 60th anniversary and our close ties over the past six decades," Perino said. "His visit to Saudi Arabia will also commemorate the 75th anniversary of the formal establishment of U.S.-Saudi relations."

During her stop in London, Rice will meet with representatives of the Quartet -– the European Union, United Nations, Russia and the United States -- to discuss further progress in the peace talks since the Palestinian donors' conference in Paris in December 2007. While in London, McCormack said, Rice also will participate in the Ad Hoc Liaison Committee on May 2 to discuss donor efforts and to encourage others to follow through on their pledges of financial assistance for the Palestinian Authority.

Rice will meet separately with British Foreign Minister Miliband, and with Quartet Special Representative to the Palestinian Authority Blair, the former British prime minister.

The secretary also will meet with representatives from the other permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- Britain, China, France and Russia -- plus Germany, known as the P5+1, for talks on Iran and its nuclear ambitions, and she will discuss Kosovo with European colleagues, McCormack said.

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