MALAYSIA: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice says she will return to negotiate peace in southern Lebanon when conditions are right

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would return to the Middle East "when it is right" but gave no timetable, dashing hopes she would launch a new Middle East peace drive on Friday (July 28). Rice made clear at a news conference after the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) forum in Kuala Lumpur on Friday (July 28) that she intended to return to the Middle East but she did not give a timetable. "I am going to return to the Middle East. The question is, when is it right for me to return to the Middle East," she said. Rice had been set to leave Malaysia on Friday, but her staff said she delayed her departure, probably until Saturday (July 29). Rice has been in Malaysia attending the ASEAN regional forum where the crisis in Lebanon has been central to many of her discussions with ministers. The U.S. Secretary of State arrived at the forum fresh from a round of meetings in the Middle East via a one-day conference in Rome that called for an urgent, but not immediate, ceasefire to hostilities in southern Lebanon where Israeli forces have been fighting the militant group Hizbollah for more than two weeks. Speaking at a joint news conference with Malaysian foreign minister Syed Hamid Albar, Rice said she was aware of concerns in the region over the conflict in Lebanon. Muslim-majority Malaysia has already accused Israel of using indiscriminate force in southern Lebanon. "We all are concerned about the humanitarian situation there, would want to see as early an end to the conflict as possible because the Middle East is a region that has had too many spasms of violence and people, whole generations have grown up without the prospect for peace and we cannot rest until that prospect for peace has improved. So I re-commit to you that not only in this immediate crisis will we work immediately and tirelessly to try to bring an end but we will do the same to try to bring a broader and more comprehensive solution to the problems of the Middle East." Rice said. "Everyone in Rome agreed that the foundation, the framework for moving forward is the extension of the authority of the Lebanese government into its full territory. The extension of the Lebanese armed forces, those that are ready and a program for reforming them and that a multinational force under U.N. mandate would have an important role to play in creating the condition in which Taif (agreement) and 1559 (United Nations resolution) can be achieved." she said. United Nations resolution 1559 was an attempt to discourage Syria from interference in Lebanon and was reinforced by the Taif agreement in 1989. Two of the Bush administration's lead negotiators on the Middle East, Assistant Secretary of State David Welch and a top White House official Elliott Abrams, are in the Middle East trying to lay the groundwork for a deal. A senior State Department official said Welch and Abrams were working hard on "political elements" of a deal and were reporting consistently to Rice, advising her when the time might be right for her to use her diplomatic prestige.

ITN Source | July 29, 2006

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