UN-Truth

Reuters News Agency is reporting from Ireland that “US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said this morning ‘critical issues’ would be tackled at a US-led peace conference and called on Israelis and Palestinians to do more to bridge their differences.
Speaking en route to Jerusalem and the Palestinian Territories, Rice said she hoped her brief trip would build up momentum ahead of the conference. Israeli-Palestinian disagreements over what to expect from the talks have cast a shadow over the conference, called by US President George W. Bush after the Islamist Hamas group seized control of the Gaza Strip in June. ‘We can’t simply continue to say we want a two-state solution, we have got to start to move towards one’, Rice told reporters before a refueling stop in Shannon. ‘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. Ms Rice, who will be in the Middle East for little more than 24 hours, wants to convince the Israelis and Palestinians to narrow their differences on the core issues that divide them – borders, Jerusalem, refugees and security…”
This Reuters report is published in the Irish Times.

The Israeli Government Press Office has advised journalists that Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni will meet Secretary Rice at 14:00 Jerusalem time in the Foreign Ministry, and that there will be a joint Livni-Rice press conference 45 minutes later.

Earlier in the week, Livni had Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad (shown in the photo above seated at her right hand) during an Iftar dinner she hosted at the King David Hotel on Sunday 16 September — a day of fasting for both Muslims, during the 30-day holy month of Ramadan which began a few days earlier, and one of six annual fasting days on the Jewish calendar, this one commemorating the assasination of the Jewish King Gedaliah. According to an item published on the website of the Israeli Foreign Ministry, “Forty guests participated, among them Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Information Minister Riad al-Maliki, Egyptian Ambassador Mohamed Assem Ibrahim Mohamed, Jordanian Ambassador Ali al-Ayed, and Mauritanian Ambassador Ahmed Ould Teguedi. Other guests included Israeli public figures and Muslim and Druze mayors and council heads. Minister Livni welcomed the guests and commented that the evening’s significance went beyond merely breaking the Muslim fast of Ramadan and the Jewish Fast of Gedaliah. The event, she stated, symbolized co-existence and common values based on the belief that joint efforts can bring peace…”
The report is published here.

Filed under: Israel, Middle East Peace Process, Palestine & Palestinians, Quartet