Rice Focuses on Small Steps to Mideast Peace

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, on Wednesday expressed sympathy for the deepening suffering of Palestinians, but signaled that her efforts toward Mideast peace now focus on a handful of narrow issues.

Rice said at a news conference that she hoped to reach agreements to open restricted border crossings, provide new humanitarian aid and improve the weak and fractured Palestinian security agencies.

Her effort, while welcomed by the Palestinians, was far more limited than what had been urged on her by European allies and moderate Arab regimes. In the aftermath of the war in Lebanon, they have been calling on the Bush administration to intensify its efforts to settle Israeli-Palestinian issues.

Nearly a year ago, Rice brokered a deal that promised to open key transit points and improve the Palestinian territories’ vital commercial ties to Israel and Egypt. But in the face of security threats to Israel, and other complications, two key crossings have been mostly closed.

Rice said she hoped that “we can come to some understanding about how to make the agreement on movement and access more functional.” To that end, she said, the Palestinians and Americans were working “very closely” on the security issues, including through Lt. Gen. Keith Dayton, the U.S. security coordinator in the region. She said U.S. officials also would talk about ways in which they might make available more humanitarian aid for Palestinians.

Western aid has been largely stalled since the electoral victory in January of the Islamic militant group Hamas, which does not recognize Israel’s right to exist and remains on the State Department’s list of terrorist organizations.

Rice said American envoys were looking for ways to end the violence and “to make possible a life for the Palestinian people that is not subject to the kind of daily humiliations that we know have been associated with the occupation.”

In the last week, top officials of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt have called on the Bush administration to make new peace efforts. Rice also has faced pointed questions during this trip about Washington’s intentions in the region.

Asked about the goals of her trip, Rice said that “sometimes what is necessary is to go step by step on the ground to really improve conditions.”

Some Palestinians held out hope that the trip, Rice’s sixth to Israel and the territories in her 21 months as secretary of State, could produce a breakthrough in the Palestinian political stalemate. They also hoped it might bring progress in efforts to exchange prisoners, or lead to the Israelis’ turning over Palestinian tax and customs revenue withheld since Hamas took over.

But Israelis had lower expectations for the trip. Rice dined Wednesday night with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and was to meet this morning with Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz. She did not schedule a news conference after the sessions, an unusual step that suggested the American side had limited ambitions for the visit.

Abbas said talks with Hamas leaders over a “national unity government” were at an impasse, and said Palestinians would need to consider whether additional efforts were worthwhile. But he did not close the door on further talks.

In Gaza City, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas member, accused Rice of seeking to “rearrange” the Middle East.

Haniyeh said there was no deadline for forming a unity government with Abbas’ Fatah movement, but he invited Abbas to resume talks soon. The two announced agreement last month on a coalition government, but that deal dissolved quickly and no talks have taken place in weeks.

A coalition with Fatah, which does recognize Israel, is seen as crucial to ending an international aid embargo that has left the government broke and thousands of public employees largely unpaid for seven months.

The donor nations also demand that the Hamas-led government renounce violence and honor past agreements between the Palestinians and Israel.

The power struggle between Hamas and Fatah erupted in serious violence this week, leaving at least 10 people dead and more than 100 injured. The confrontations have abated, but the climate remains tense, particularly in the Gaza Strip.

It was not clear how Abbas planned to move next to address the political impasse with Hamas.

One idea under discussion is for Abbas to settle the power struggle by dissolving the Hamas government and naming a Cabinet composed of technocrats and political independents. Dumping the government, however, probably would be regarded by Hamas hard-liners as an overthrow and could spark more violence.

Meanwhile, a poll suggested that new elections for parliament and president wouldn’t assure victory for Fatah, despite declining support for Hamas. The poll, by the Jerusalem Media & Communication Center, showed that 32% of respondents would support Fatah in a hypothetical vote, whereas 30.5% would back Hamas.

But the poll also indicated that Hamas’ Haniyeh was trusted by a higher percentage of respondents than was Abbas. And more than half of those questioned said they favored creation of a unity government.

The Persian Gulf nation of Qatar, meanwhile, has proposed a plan for a Palestinian unity government that would accept a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict and agree to a mutual truce between Israel and Palestinian fighters, the daily Haaretz newspaper in Israel reported.

paul.richter@latimes.com

ken.ellingwood@latimes.com