By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that U.S., Israelis and the Palestinians all want to work hard for the improvements that can lead to a successful conclusion of the Annapolis process, local daily Jerusalem Post reported on its website.
Rice, who started Saturday a three-day shuttle visit to the Middle East, made the remarks after a trilateral meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
“We have just had a very good meeting. We are discussing the situation on the ground and the importance of improvement in that situation along the lines of one of the Annapolis tracks. I am pleased to say that the two gentlemen have met before I was here and they have said they will continue to meet as it is necessary,” the secretary of state was quoted as saying.
During the meeting, Barak presented a list of steps Israel planned to take in order to ease the lives of West Bank Palestinians, which included granting work and travel permits, removing some checkpoints and transferring police cars for PNA security forces, according to Jerusalem Post.
Rice repeated her call for “improvements” to the Palestinian economy, but did not announce agreement on any such measures.
Earlier Sunday, Rice said in a joint press conference with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Jerusalem that the Israelis and the Palestinians have a joint responsibility to create an atmosphere and a reality in which the Palestinians are committed to Israel’s security and Israel is committed to the Palestinians’ quality of life.
The secretary of state added that she expected both Israel and the Palestinians to carry out meaningful things both in the economic and the security fields.
During her second trip in a month to the Middle East, Rice planned to hold two trilateral meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders. In addition to the meeting held on Sunday, she will hold another one on Monday with Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia.
Rice said earlier this month that neither Israel nor the Palestinians had done “nearly enough” to carry out the 2003 “Road Map” peace plan under which Israel is required to halt West Bank settlement activity and uproot settler outposts and the Palestinians to rein in militants.
Barak said last Wednesday shortly before his talks at his Tel Aviv home with Fayyad that Israel would transfer new vehicles and equipment to the security forces of PNA, pledging to ease the travel restrictions for West Bank residents by removing some roadblocks.