JERUSALEM: Peacemaking efforts continue as US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UN chief Ban Ki-Moon hold meetings with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and UN chief Ban Ki-Moon hold meeting with Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, trying to revive Mideast peace process. High-level diplomatic talks took place in Jerusalem on Monday (March 26) as U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon held meetings with Israeli ministers in a bid to revive Middle East peacemaking. Rice met Olmert in his residence as part of a round of talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. Ban met Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Vice Premier Shimon Peres. During her visit Rice shuttled between the sides as the United Nations raised the idea of a meeting bringing together Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states in a bid to revive peace talks. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he would "not hesitate to participate" if invited to an expanded meeting of the Quartet of Middle East mediators that could also include Saudi Arabia. U.S. officials played down the idea, saying it was one of several possibilities under consideration and that no decisions had been made. A public meeting that brings Israeli and Saudi leaders together would be a breakthrough. The countries do not have formal relations, though there have been reports of informal Saudi contacts with Olmert. During a brief visit to Amman earlier on Monday, Rice met for a second time in 24 hours with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, as well as with Jordan's King Abdullah. She will return later to Jerusalem for further talks with Olmert. On her fourth visit to the Middle East in four months, Rice is talking to the Israelis and Palestinians separately because Olmert has so far ruled out engaging Abbas on peace since the Fatah leader formed a Palestinian unity government with the Islamist Hamas faction. The U.S. secretary of state is trying to persuade Israel and the Palestinians to talk to her about a set of issues related to an eventual peace agreement. Rice hopes steps toward a broader Arab-Israeli reconciliation would make it easier to make progress on the long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian front. Rice has been encouraging Arab governments to breathe new life into a peace plan they ratified in 2002 by adding what she calls "active diplomacy" -- seen as code for early contacts with Israelis. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, also on a visit to the region, said on Monday that Israeli and Palestinian leaders, along with officials from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the United Arab Emirates, could be invited to attend the next Quartet meeting, expected to take place in Egypt. The United Nations is part of the Quartet, whose other members are the United States, the European Union and Russia. "My goal is to contribute as much as I can as the secretary general of the United Nations to this ongoing peace process. We have seen the formation of a national unity government, as I said, Arab countries are constructively engaging in this process, the Quartet process has been reenergised, the United Stated has been very actively engaged in this process. We need to take this momentum and make it as much as possible to the fullest possible extent to help facilitate this peace process," said Ban at a joint news conference with Livni. Neither the Israelis nor the Palestinians have fulfilled their commitments under the road map, which calls for Israel to halt settlement building in the occupied West Bank and the Palestinians to dismantle militant groups. The 2002 plan touted by Rice, known as the Saudi initiative, offers Israel normal ties with Arab countries in return for full withdrawal from land it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. "There are some positive elements in it (the Saudi initiative), I mean the need to become reconciled, the need to moralise the relations between the Arab world and Israel are of positive nature. There are certain elements that were added, unfortunately, after the Saudi initiative was published and this refers to the refugee issue. I would like to say the way Israel sees it because the nature, the vision of a two-state solution, the meaning is that we are talking about two states, two different homelands, one is Israel homeland for the Jewish people and the other is Palestine - the future Palestinian state - which is the answer to the Palestinians wherever they are: those who are living in territories and those who live outside of the territories and I mean the refugees. So to say something about the creation of a Palestinian state on one hand and simultaneously to demand what they call the Right of Return of refugees to Israel, the Jewish state out of the states, is against the nature, its against the process, its against this vision," Livni said, referring to the initiative. Israel and the Quartet of Middle East negotiators have demanded the Palestinian government recognise Israel, renounce violence and accept existing peace deals. The new unity administration has agreed only to "respect" previous accords and has stopped short of recognising Israel or giving up the right to armed struggle. Ends

ITN Source | March 27, 2007

Tags:. .palestine. .territories. .shuttled. .jewish. .revive