Jerusalem, Aug 2 (DPA) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said she was “encouraged” by the way Arab and Israeli leaders have received President George W. Bush’s proposal to hold a regional conference this autumn, aimed at pushing toward a revival of long-stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
“I am encouraged by the attitude I have seen here among all the parties about the prospect for this international meeting,” she told a joint news conference with her Israeli counterpart, Tzipi Livni, here Wednesday.
She added, however, that it was “too early” to issue invitations for the conference and “to expect people to say whether they will attend”.
It is still unclear where and exactly when the conference will be held, who will attend – in addition to Israel, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and the US – and what the agenda will be.
In a news conference with Rice in Jeddah earlier Wednesday, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal expressed Saudi Arabia’s readiness to attend, but stopped short of giving final confirmation it would.
The conference should address the main problems in the conflict, he said.
Tony Blair, during his first visit to the region last month as the new Middle East envoy for the quartet of the US, European Union, United Nations and Russia, had lent his voice to calls by the Palestinians that the conference should have real substance.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who met Rice over dinner Wednesday, however, reportedly wants negotiations on a final peace deal to be bilateral and prefers to reach an “agreement of principles” with Abbas on the outlines of a peace treaty first.
An official in Olmert’s office said Wednesday that the conference could provide “an umbrella for bilateral talks between Israelis and Palestinians.”
“We hope that many Arab countries will participate, including Saudi Arabia,” the official said.
According to the Israeli Ha’aretz daily, Olmert is interested in a diplomatic breakthrough coming out of the summit, in the form of a meeting between himself and an official from Saudi Arabia.
Israeli leaders have never met openly with officials from Saudi Arabia, an important regional player, which like most Arab nations except Jordan and Egypt has no diplomatic ties with the Jewish state and has never formally recognised it.
At the same time however, Saudi Arabia is the author of the 2002 Arab peace initiative, relaunched in March, which made an unprecedented offer of all-round Arab recognition of Israel in return for a full withdrawal from the occupied territories and a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.
“When we receive an invitation to participate in the conference, we will look into the issue and make sure to attend,” al-Faisal told the morning news conference with Rice and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates in Jeddah Wednesday.
Bush’s initiative included several “positive and important elements” as to finding “a comprehensive solution” and “the foundation of a Palestinian state, ending the Israeli settlements,” solving the refugees’ problem and Jerusalem. “All these point conform with the Arab peace initiative,” he said.
“The Saudi announcement from today is encouraging,” Livni said in her meeting with Rice shortly after the secretary of state landed in Israel.
“This is a crucial point in time,” Livni said, referring to the new circumstances created in the Palestinian territories since the radical Islamic Hamas movement seized control of the Gaza Strip from Abbas’ security forces less than two months ago.
Since then, Abbas has dismissed the previous Palestinian unity government led by Hamas leader Ismail Haniya and replaced it with a moderate “caretaker” government headed by independent economist Salam Fayyad.
“Ultimately the Palestinian people will have to choose what kind of world they live in,” Rice said of the internal Palestinian deadlock, also promising to continue aid to the people of Gaza.
“We are not going to abandon the people of Gaza to Hamas,” she said.
Her latest visit, the first since March, is aimed at courting moderate leaders in the region and at preparing the ground for the autumn conference, announced by Bush in a key July 16 Middle East policy speech.
Rice is due to end her tour in the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks Thursday morning with Abbas Fayyad, while shunning the de-facto Hamas government in Gaza.
Rice met the foreign ministers of Jordan, Egypt and Gulf states in the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Tuesday, who also expressed support for the conference.
She also met Israeli President Shimon Peres Wednesday, who invited Bush to attend celebrations of Israel’s 60th anniversary in early 2008.