UN-Truth

The Associated Press is reporting from London, where U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice met this afternoon with British PM Tony Blair, that “Israel and the Palestinians can pick any agenda they want for a preliminary peacemaking summit with the United States, but it is too early to tackle the toughest issues…’We’re not yet at the point where I think we can determine what we would do about formal negotiations, when and if’ they can occur, Rice said at the close of a week’s trip to the Middle East and Europe. ‘It’s really a time to try to get the parties into more of a confidence-building phase and we’ll see what comes after that.’  Rice said her three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas probably would take place in the Middle East in the first half of February.
Speaking to reporters traveling with her, Rice said that session will follow a gathering in Washington of the international sponsors of a dormant, step-by-step peace plan called the ‘road map’ that was to have led to Palestinian statehood by 2005.  She acknowledged that the 2003 plan’s requirements had become something of an obstacle in restarting talks between the two sides, but she said it remains the guideline.” 
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070118/ap_on_re_mi_ea/rice

It does not seem that the U.S. understands, yet, the Palestinian problems with this sequence — despite Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’ saying “loud and clear” that he doesn’t want any more temporary anything.

Filed under: Quartet, UN Secretary-General