Posted by Bay Fang at 6:30 am CST
On the eve of her departure for the Middle East, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she is going to do what she can to move toward a new “political horizon” between the Palestinians and the Israelis, despite uncertainty caused by the upcoming formation of a new Palestinian unity government.
On Monday, she brings together Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli President Ehud Olmert in a rare summit.
In a roundtable with press here in Washington, Rice said she was withholding judgment on the Palestinian government yet to be formed.
“I think it’s important to inject energy and confidence into a process that really has already begun between Abbas and Olmert, but to try to help move that forward,” she said. “I’ll be very candid - it is more complicated with the horizon of a government that we don’t yet know what its character will be, but in the Middle East, if you wait for the perfect circumstances, you would probably never take the airplane.”
Abbas’ Fatah party and the radical Palestinian party Hamas, which have engaged in bloody battles since late last year, entered into a power-sharing deal last week, with the help of the Saudi government.
On Thursday, Abbas formally asked the current Palestinian prime minister, Ismail Haniya, who is from the Hamas faction, for help with forming the new government. It remains unclear whether that government, which will still be headed by Haniyeh, will respect peace accords signed by Israel.
The negotiations over a two-state solution in Israel and Palestine have been frozen since former President Bill Clinton brought the two sides together at Camp David in 2000, in talks that soon broke down.
• 
• 
• 
Comments
I still can't understand why the W. administration refuses to talk to our perceived "enemys" i.e. Iran,Syria etc?
No wonder the rest of the world hates us.
It's going to be a tough job for our new Democratic President in 09 to repair the damage that the NeoCon Republicans have done to our country under the W. administration.
Posted by: John E. | February 16, 2007 2:06 PM
I still can't understand why the W. administration refuses to talk to our perceived "enemys" i.e. Iran,Syria etc?
No wonder the rest of the world hates us.
It's going to be a tough job for our new Democratic President in 09 to repair the damage that the NeoCon Republicans have done to our country under the W. administration.
Posted by: John E. | February 16, 2007 2:06 PM