This was the US Secretary of States comments following a meeting with Abu Mazen. Rice urges the Palestinians and Israelis to find an accord head f the Middle East conference set for November. No clarification however on progress in negotiations of key issues such as : borders, refugees and Jerusalem.

Ramallah (AsiaNews/Agencies) – The upcoming Conference on the Middle East, set for mid November in Washington, will be “serious and substantial” and will have the aim of progressing in the creation of a Palestinian State alongside Israel.  These were the assurances expressed by the US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice in  Ramallah, where yesterday she met with the President of the Palestinian Authority, Abu Mazen, and the premier, Salam Fayyad.

Rice also urged the Israelis and Palestinians to reach agreement ahead of the Washington summit.  The aim – she recalled – is to “advance the peace process” and arrive at a document that “lays the foundations for serious negotiations that would also advance the cause of a Palestinian state”. The United States number one diplomat has also guaranteed her personal commitment to the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to “build towards a successful encounter”.

For weeks now there has been talk of Olmert and Abbas’ efforts to sign a joint Declaration of peace between Israel and Palestine.  Washington hopes that the document will be ready before the encounter; this would encourage participants in the summit from other Arab nations otherwise difficult to involve such as Saudi Arabia or Egypt who have already threatened to boycott the meeting if it is revealed to have a vague and purely symbolic agenda.

Until now the United States has preferred to not specify how it intends to proceed on the three key points which have stalled talks so far: the final borders of the Palestinian State, the status of Jerusalem, and the rights of Palestinian refugees.

 

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