Rice meets Abbas for first time since Gaza seizure

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JERUSALEM, Aug 2 (AFP): US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas Thursday seeking to build on diplomatic momentum after the Hamas takeover of Gaza and rally support for a Middle East peace conference.
It was her first visit to the occupied West Bank since the Islamists overran forces loyal to the moderate Abbas in mid-June, as she sought to fuel a new diplomatic drive to revive dormant Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Rice met Abbas after talks with premier Salam Fayyad, a US-educated economist whom the president appointed in the wake of the Gaza takeover.
"We do have in the Palestinian territories a government that is devoted to the international principles, the foundational principles for peace and this is an opportunity that should not be missed," she said Wednesday when she met senior Israeli leaders.
Following the Gaza takeover, the US and Israel have been seeking to bolster Abbas in his West Bank powerbase, while isolating Hamas, boycotted by the West as a terror group.
Hamas slammed Rice for widening the Palestinian divide with her visit.
"Rice didn't come to establish a Palestinian state," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri said in a statement. "She came to support one Palestinian party against another one and to deepen the internal Paleastinian gap."
The Palestinian leaders were expected to ask Rice to pressure Israel to hand over security control in West Bank cities to boost Abbas in his standoff with Hamas.
"Our plan is to deploy Palestinian security forces in all the cities of the West Bank and this needs coordination with Israel," information minister Riyad al-Malki said.
But Israel insists the Palestinians needed to clamp down on militants before any transfer of security control.
"Israel set the condition that security guarantees must be provided before such transfer of security control," a government spokesman said Wednesday.
Rice and Fayyad are to sign a "framework agreement for security assistance" for more than 80 million dollars (63 million euros) Washington has pledged to boost the defence needs of the Palestinians.
The Palestinians were also to ask Rice to push Israel to remove the estimated 500 roadblocks that severely hamper the freedom of movement in the West Bank and are one of the most potent symbols of the four-decade occupation.
The Israeli security establishment opposes removing the roadblocks, saying they are needed in order to prevent militants from launching attacks on the Jewish state.
The Palestinians also want Israel to agree to discuss the thorniest "core issues," such as the status of Jerusalem and borders.
But the Israelis have been resisting, calling instead for a framework on the issues before the international peace conference, which a senior US official will take place in the autumn, after the end of Jewish and Muslim high holidays.
"We must reach an agreement with the Palestinians on the framework of the final status issues, which will guarantee a clear diplomatic and security horizon for both sides," a senior Israeli government official quoted Haim Ramon, minister without portfolio, as telling Rice early Thursday.
"This should happen before the summit in November," said Ramon, one of the Olmert's closest allies.
While in Saudi Arabia, Rice managed to secure a positive response to the conference from the regional Arab heavyweight, which drafted a recently revived 2002 Arab peace plan for the Middle East.
"Should we get an invitation to attend the conference, we will look at it very closely and very hard," Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said at a news conference with Rice in Jeddah.
Saudi Arabia does not have diplomatic ties with Israel and has not attended peace talks involving Israel for more than a decade.
US officials said they detected a new sense of hope in the region for the settlement of the Palestinian question, which has dogged Middle East security for decades.
"People do realise that there is an opportunity here and discussions now should take advantage of that and how to maximise the results," one senior US administration official said.
Rice travelled with Defence Secretary Robert Gates to the Middle East, with the pair visiting Egypt and Saudi Arabia together before splitting up: Gates went on to Kuwait, while Rice headed to Israel and the Palestinian territories.
Rice was to return home after her meetings in Ramallah.