By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that the U.S., Israelis and the Palestinians all want a successful outcome of the Annapolis summit, local daily Jerusalem Post reported on its website.
Rice made the remarks after her meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian National Authority (PNA) Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
“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,” Rice said.
She added that “I am pleased to say that the two gentlemen (Barak and Fayyad) have met before I was here and they have said they will continue to meet as is necessary.”
During the meeting, Barak presented a list of steps Israel planned to improve the lives of West Bank Palestinians, including granting work and travel permits, removing some checkpoints and transferring police cars to PNA security forces, according to the Jerusalem Post.
Rice repeated her call for “improvements” to the Palestinian economy, but did not announce any agreement on 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 steps both in the economic and the security fields.
During her second trip in a month to the Mideast, 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 Qurei.
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.