By Xinhua
Jerusalem : Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice promised Sunday to monitor Israel’s activities in the West Bank to verify if it was implementing its promises to ease access and movement for the Palestinians.
Rice made the promise while speaking to reporters in Jerusalem after a trilateral meeting with Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad.
Rice told the reporters that “we will be verifying what it is they are doing and this is all aimed at trying to improve the movement and access of the Palestinian people in the West Bank.”
During the trilateral meeting, Israel and the Palestinians agreed on a series of concrete steps aimed at paving the way for a final peace agreement later this year, beginning with an Israeli pledge to remove some 50 roadblocks in the West Bank, according to U.S. officials traveling with Rice.
They also revealed that the Palestinians had agreed to step up their efforts to prevent terror in the West Bank.
The U.S. also issued a statement after the trilateral meeting, saying Israel would remove about 50 roadblocks and take other immediate steps to speed up the movement of Palestinians through other West Bank travel barriers.
“We have been told this is going to start and even be completed in a relatively short period of time. I am not going to give you a date but I am expecting it to happen very very soon,” Rice was quoted by local daily Ha’aretz as saying.
General William Fraser, U.S. envoy appointed to oversee the implementation of the Road Map peace plan, will be following up on the specifics and making certain that the roadblocks are being removed, Rice added.
Earlier on Sunday, Rice said in a press conference in Jerusalem with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni 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.
Rice on Saturday a three-day shuttle visit to the Middle East in a bid to discuss practical ways to improve the lives of the Palestinians.
She said earlier this month that neither Israel nor the Palestinians had done “nearly enough” to carry out the Road Map peace plan.
Under the peace plan, Israel is required to halt West Bank settlement activity and uproot settler outposts and the Palestinians to rein in militants.