Rice to Beit-ul-Moqaddas in bid to revive peace process
The top U.S. diplomat met with her Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni Saturday evening in preparation for a much anticipated three-way sit down with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Today, she is to meet separately with Olmert in Jerusalem and Abbas in Ramallah in the West Bank, while the rare tripartite meeting is set down for a large Jerusalem hotel on Monday.
In the runup to her trip, U.S. President George W. Bush spoke separately Friday via telephone with the Israeli premier and Saudi King Abdullah, with the focus being on Monday's meeting, according to the White House.
U.S. National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said a unity government deal signed earlier this month between rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas will top the agenda of Rice's weekend talks.
Abbas moderate and secular Fatah party and the Islamist Hamas, met in the Muslim holy city of Mecca under the auspices of King Abdullah and on February 8 agreed to form a national unity government to stop deadly infighting and convince the West to resume aid dollars.
In Moscow, top Russian diplomat Sergei Lavrov, said Friday he had high hopes for the three-way talks in Beit-ul_Moqaddas.
"We hope a concrete agreement can define a framework for a definitive settlement to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," Russia's Interfax news agency cited Lavrov as saying.
On Thursday, however, Rice's spokesman was lowering expectations for the encounter.
"It's not designed as a set of meetings that is going to result in a formal outcome, it is designed to start a series of conversations," Sean McCormack said.
Rice's plan, unveiled earlier this month, is to move beyond security issues which have bogged down Israeli-Palestinian negotiations for years and get the two sides also talking about the contours of a future Palestinian state.
Such "final status" issues have not been broached by senior leaders since former president Bill Clinton brought the two sides together at the Camp David retreat in 2000 for negotiations which ultimately failed.
Rice's initiative is designed to bolster the position of Abbas and his secular Fatah party in a power struggle with the Islamist movement Hamas, which gained control of the Palestinian government through January 2006 elections.
The West responded by withholding critical aid and recognition from the government, plunging the Palestinian areas into financial crisis and political deadlock.