RICE 3 WAY TALKS

Rice to hold three-way talks with Mideast leaders U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, left, and Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni. By Barbara Slavin, USA TODAY JAN 15,2007

LUXOR, Egypt Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Monday she would bring the leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority together soon for informal broader discussions on creating a Palestinian state.Making good on a pledge she made last year to intensify her involvement in trying to resolve the Arab-Israeli dispute, Rice announced no date or location for the three-way
talks and said they were not meant to substitute for other meetings between Palestinians and Israelis.There are a number of issues, some old, some new, that will ultimately have to be resolved if there is to be a Palestinian state, Rice said in the ancient Egyptian city of Luxor, where she stopped Monday for talks with Egyptian leaders after two days in Israel and the Palestinian territories. The parties have not talked about these issues for a long time (and) it seems wise to begin this informal discussion.

U.S. Arab allies and the bipartisan Iraq Study Group have urged a higher U.S. profile on the Israeli-Palestinian front to strengthen pro-U.S. governments in the region and take away a potent tool of anti-U.S. regimes such as Iran's. But there was skepticism about how much the Bush administration could accomplish in its final two years in office, given its preoccupation with Iraq and the weakness of Israeli and Palestinian leaders.Joseph Alpher, an Israeli strategic expert who advised former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during unsuccessful Camp David peace talks in 2000, said he would have been more impressed if Rice had stayed in Israel for a third day and brought the two sides together now.I think she's much more focused on Iraq and Iran than the Arab-Israeli dispute, Alpher said.

President Bush hosted a summit in Jordan in 2003 with then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and then Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas that launched a so-called roadmap to Palestinian statehood. There was little U.S. followup, however, and the Bush
administration and Israel refused to deal with then Palestinian President Yasser Arafat. The Israelis confined Arafat to his Ramallah headquarters, accusing him of encouraging anti-Israel terrorism. In 2005, Israel withdrew unilaterally from Gaza. Israeli troops and settlers remain throughout the West Bank.Abbas was elected president in 2005 following Arafat's death and lacks his predecessor's authority. He was weakened further when the militant Hamas movement won parliamentary elections a year ago.Abbas met last month with Ehud Olmert, who succeeded Sharon after he suffered a massive stroke in late 2005. The talks focused on taxes and prisoners, not issues involving statehood: the boundaries of a future Palestinian state, the fate of Jerusalem and the status of millions of Palestinian refugees. Rice said it was important to deal with day-to-day concerns as well as to create a political horizon for statehood that could strengthen Abbas. Also much less popular than his predecessor, Olmert is blamed by Israelis for lackluster military performance in a 34-day war last summer between Israel and the Iranian-backed Lebanese movement, Hezbollah.

Rice confirmed that the Bush administration wants $86 million to equip and train about 30,000 Palestinian security personnel, including Abbas' 3,700-member presidential guard. The money would go for mess kits, uniforms and communication gear. The funding would require congressional approval. On Sunday, Abbas reiterated his opposition to establishment of a provisional Palestinian state with temporary borders, a possible interim step before a permanent peace can be negotiated with Israel.Abbas also complained that IOlmert has failed to deliver on recent promises to release Palestinian prisoners, cut the number of Israeli
checkpoints in the West Bank and hand over $100 million in Palestinian taxes Israel has collected.Hamas, which rejects Israel's right to exist, has been locked in a stalemate with Abbas over formation of a Cabinet. Recent violence between Hamas and Abbas' Fatah movement has killed nearly 40 people. Hamas has about 6,000 armed men and has vowed to double the force.Contributing: the Associated Press