Rice in new Middle East peace push
Wednesday, 19 Sep 2007 06:50
The US secretary of state hopes to further progress on the creation of a Palestinian state
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US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice is on her way to Israel for the latest round of peace talks between the country and Palestine.
The top US diplomat said that she hoped for "serious and substantive" talks at the one-day conference, which aims to build on efforts to create a Palestinian state in the Middle East.
Ms Rice said: "This meeting has to, in a substantive way, support the activities and the efforts of the parties to lay the foundations for the negotiation of a Palestinian state as soon as possible.
"I think everybody expects it to be serious and substantive. I think everybody expects it to address critical issues and we do not expect anything less," she added
The US state department head added that "critical issues" that have prevented progress in negotiations between the two parties would be raised and that she expected progress to be made on measures to establish another state on land currently held by Israel.
"We can't simply continue to say we want a two-state solution, we have got to start to move towards one.
"This international meeting is also going to be doing exactly that. This is not a matter just to declare that we all want to see a two-state solution," she added.
The meeting between Ms Rice and senior Israel and Palestinian officials comes at a time of increased tension in the region, after a diplomatic spat between Israel and neighbour Syria.
Syria has claimed that Israeli warplanes violated its airspace and hit an undisclosed target. Meanwhile, North Korea rejected a report in the New York Times that alleged it was helping Syria develop nuclear capability.
Israel remains tight-lipped about the apparent raid but analysts have speculated that the operation may have been linked to fears of the rogue communist state helping Syria develop its nuclear programme. The Jewish state is already wary of neighbouring Iran's nuclear activities.