Rice on Maiden Mideast Peace Mission

Rice, on an eight-nation tour of Europe as well as the Middle East, is to hold talks with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).

On the second day of her visit, Washington’s top diplomat will also meet in the West Bank with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, the most senior contact between the two sides in years.

Following Israel’s suit, the US shunned late Palestinian president Yasser Arafat, who passed away on November 11, on claims he was a stumbling block to the peace process.

In an interview broadcast Sunday, Rice said the election of Abbas “has been a real plus for the (peace) process”.

“He’s a person who says that the armed Intifada has failed, that it’s time now to move to negotiation,” she told the BBC.

Rice said the new Palestinian leader “has a lot of work to do, of course, to really stop terrorism and to also make sure that terrorist groups cannot just turn terrorism on and off as they wish.”

The United States and Israel described Palestinian groups resisting the Israeli occupation of their land, condemned by dozens of UN resolutions, as terrorist.

“But we are impressed with what he has done, we hope he will continue to do more,” she said.

Abbas has been negotiated a ceasefire with the Palestinian resistance group, who showed readiness to halt anti-Israel attacks provided that Israel stooped incessant aggressions on the Palestinian people.

Quoting US President George Bush’s State of the Union address, Rice said the Americans “stand by ready to help and, indeed, will engage to try and help the parties.”

Rice’s visit will set the stage for a landmark summit between Sharon and Abbas in the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh on Tuesday, February 8.

Hosted by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and attended by Jordanian King Abdullah II, the summit will be the first between the top Israeli and Palestinian leaders in more than four years.

Crisis Mechanism

As part of its new active involvement in the peace process, the US is discussing with Israel and the Palestinians the creation of a crisis management group to keep peace talks alive even through “inevitable” outbreaks of violence.

A senior US State Department official, who asked not to be named, suggested the group would comprise representatives of both sides and the United States.

He said they were working on “some sort of mechanism to deal with problems” that arise during the talks, including “the inevitable violence” that has wrecked past negotiations.

The senior official said details of the crisis management plan had not been worked out.

“We’re still discussing these sorts of issues with the parties and they’re discussing things among themselves,” he said.

Rice alluded to the discussions in a briefing for reporters aboard the plane taking her Saturday from Warsaw to Ankara.

She said Washington was working to help the parties “develop means by which they can talk and solve the kind of crises that are inevitably going to come up as they go along this road.”

Prisoners Issue Delayed
In an effort to avoid the issue overshadowing the Sharm summit, the Israelis and Palestinians agreed to set up a joint committee which will discuss the criteria for the release of Palestinian prisoners after the conclusion of the summit.

“The two sides agreed to set up a joint ministerial committee to discuss the criteria of prisoners to be released, Palestinian Negotiations Minister Saeb Erakat told AFP.

He said the decision was reached during late-night talks with a top Sharon adviser, which were also attended by former Palestinian security minister Mohammed Dahlan.

“It was an in-depth meeting with some very positive ideas,” he noted.

Israel has agreed to free 900 of the 8,000 Palestinian prisoners held in its jails, but has stressed it would not release detainees who “had blood on their hands”.

The Palestinians are pushing for the release of all prisoners.

“We are … demanding the liberation of 8,000 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel and hope to be able to sort out the differences in this respect in 48 hours,” said Palestinian Authority spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina.

Tayeb Abdel Rahim, the director of Abbas’s office, said the issue “is very important for the Palestinian people, for the re-launch of the peace process and for Fatah”.