Rice meets Palestinian cabinet in gesture of support
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice met with the entire Palestinian Cabinet today, a gesture of support for the team of moderates that replaced the Hamas government after the Islamic militants seized Gaza by force.
Hamas considers the West Bank-based government of Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to be illegitimate.
Today, Rice met separately with Fayyad, then was introduced to his team of ministers. Rice addressed the Cabinet in the room where it holds its regular meetings.
Hamas, whose government was fired by President Mahmoud Abbas after the Gaza takeover, accused Rice of trying to deepen the divisions among Palestinians.
“Rice did not come to the region to establish a Palestinian state, as she and her master Bush claimed, but instead she came to support one Palestinian party against another, and to support the Zionist occupation,” said Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri.
After attending the Cabinet session, Rice was to hold talks with Abbas at his nearby headquarters.
Palestinian officials said the key item on the Rice-Abbas agenda is a Mideast peace conference set for the autumn. The officials said they wanted the conference, announced last month by US President George Bush, to yield real results, not just agreement on holding more meetings.
The Palestinians have been pushing for a resumption of negotiations with Israel on a final peace deal, something Israel has been reluctant to agree to. Instead, Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert have been talking in general about the contours of a future Palestinian state.
“We don’t want another meeting void of implementing mechanisms,” Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said of the fall conference. “What we need to see is timelines and mechanisms for implementation.”
Palestinian officials said they will also tell Rice that Israel must start withdrawing troops from West Bank cities and restore the control of the Palestinian security forces there.
In previous meetings, Abbas and Olmert agreed in principle to the idea, but the Israeli military is concerned a troop pullback will increase risks of renewed attacks on Israel by Palestinian militants.
