Cautious reaction to Palestinian bid for unity
US and Israeli diplomats tonight said Palestinian leaders cannot expect international acceptance of their proposed unity government unless it renounces terrorism and accepts Israel’s right to exist.
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni responded cautiously to Palestinian efforts to resolve an eight-month political stand-off that has frozen vital foreign aid.
“We will see what the outcome is here,” Ms Rice said of the continuing efforts by the radical Hamas group and the moderate Fatah party to form a coalition Palestinian government.
She said the Palestinians’ moderate leader, Mahmoud Abbas, “is someone with whom we can work and with whom we are working.” But she added that a Palestinian coalition must adhere to internationally accepted principles of recognising Israel, renouncing violence and accepting previous agreements between Palestinians and the Israelis.
Those are the “very essential elements” of a solution, she said. “It’s hard to have a partner for peace if you don’t accept the right of the other partner to exist.”
Livni said Abbas “has to decide whether the Palestinian Authority will operate on his terms or on the terrorists’ terms.”
Livni met White House and state officials today as attention in the volatile Middle East shifted to Palestinian humanitarian and political crises after Israel’s summer war with Hezbollah militants in Lebanon.
