MIDDLE EAST: United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice holds talks with Israeli Prime Minister, ahead of a trilateral meeting with the Palestinian President

United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem on Sunday (February 18) ahead of a trilateral meeting scheduled for Monday (February 19) with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to discuss future prospects for renewed talks. Abbas earlier defended his unity deal with Hamas in talks with Rice in the West Bank city of Ramallah. Rice, Olmert and Abbas are all due to meet in Jerusalem on Monday (February 19), but no joint news conference is planned -- a sign that expectations are low. Abbas made the deal for the Palestinian unity government with leaders of the Islamist Hamas movement in Mecca, Saudi Arabia this month. The agreement ended ended weeks of internal fighting between Hamas and Fatah militant that killed more than 90 Palestinians. But Western officials said the agreement fell short of meeting policy terms set by international mediators. Olmert told his cabinet that U.S. President George W. Bush had agreed in a telephone call on Friday (February 16) to boycott Abbas's planned unity government with Hamas group if international terms were not satisfied. Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh told a crowd of supporters in Gaza City, Hamas rejects U.S. pressure and expects support for the unity government that will be presented in the near future. "We reject the American and Israeli pressures which are being practised against our people and against the government and which want our people to deny the Mecca agreement and to return to the starting point. This is the will of the Palestinian people and they have either to respect the will of the elections or to respect the will of the agreement," said Haniyeh. The Quartet of Middle East mediators, comprising of the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations, have insisted that any Palestinian government must recognise Israel, renounce violence and abide by interim peace accords.

ITN Source | February 19, 2007

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