Rice presses Palestinians to ensure calm during Gaza pullout

RAMALLAH (West Bank) ? AFP
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was holding talks with the Palestinian leadership in a bid to ensure that next month’s Israeli pullout from Gaza is not marred by militant violence.

After discussions on Friday with Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon about the historic withdrawal of troops and settlers, scheduled to begin on August 17, Rice was meeting Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and his top lieutenants at his West Bank headquarters after returning from a flying visit to Lebanon.

Prime minister Ahmed Qorei said his hour-long session with Rice had been “beautiful” but made no further comment as the top US diplomat began talks with the powerful civil affairs minister Mohammed Dahlan. Housing minister Mohammed Shtayyeh, who attended the talks between Qorei and Rice, said she had emphasised the need to rein in armed factions such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad during the pullout.

“She told us that the weapons must be collected from the factions and that the Palestinian Authority must guarantee that the withdrawal does not take place under fire,” Shtayyeh told AFP. Rice has said she would emphasise “the need to resist any efforts by terrorists to destroy this moment of hope for the people of the Palestinian territories and the people of Israel” during her talks.

Abbas managed to persuade the Palestinian factions to announce a halt to their campaign of anti-Israeli attacks earlier this year, but has been unable to bring about a total cessation of violence by the likes of Islamic Jihad. A teenage Palestinian bystander was killed and an Israeli soldier wounded during a firefight between militants and the army in southern West Bank city of Hebron Friday in the latest flare-up.

The Palestinian Authority president, whose late predecessor Yasser Arafat was boycotted by the Bush administration, has said he will need some help from Washington to ensure the pullout is peaceful. “There are many issues that must be discussed with Dr Rice. The most important thing is the withdrawal from Gaza, its details and the details after the withdrawal from Gaza,” Abbas told reporters on Thursday.

“We need some things, which we will discuss with Dr Rice, to ensure that the withdrawal is quiet.” Israeli officials called on Rice at their meetings to pressure Abbas to rein in hardliners who are trying to portray the pullout as an act of surrender. “Prime Minister Sharon emphasized the need to pressure the Palestinians to halt terrorism and see to it that there is no firing during the implementation of the disengagement,” said a statement from Sharon‘s office after his talks with Rice.

Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom said Rice needed “to convince Mahmud Abbas to act in a resolute fashion against the terrorist organisations such as Hamas and Islamic Jihad otherwise the withdrawal will be a failure.” Rice is also expected to push for more concerted efforts to coordinate the plan which was originally conceived by Sharon as a unilateral measure.

On her last visit to the region five weeks ago, Rice announced an agreement had been reached between the Israelis and Palestinians for settler homes to be razed after the Gaza pullout. However since then, there has been few concrete agreements between the two sides despite a lengthy round of talks.

A senior State Department Official, who asked not to be named, said that there were signs of a breakthrough as the withdrawal loomed closer. “I don’t want to overplay it but we are seeing signs of more cooperation” between Israelis and Palestinians, he said, referring to efforts by the Palestinian leadership’s efforts to halt rocket firings from the Gaza Strip.

“Part of this is being driven by the calendar,” he said in reference to Israel‘s imminent withdrawal from the territory. “But part of it is, little by little, they are building up trust.”