Rice's ME trip approaches amidst diplomatic questions
US State Department supports decision to meet with non-Hamas ministers in PA government, while some Congress members object
The United States government indicated Tuesday that it is unwilling to sever ties with Palestinian officials with whom it has a history of contact, and unlike Israel, will not shun non-Hamas ministers in the new Palestinian unity government. But some Congress members have expressed support for a harder-line policy.
In response to a question about a recent meeting between Palestinian Finance Minister Salam Fayyad and the US consul-general, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said that the US has "settled on what we thought was an appropriate and right contact policy. I know the Israeli Government has a different view in this regard."
Nonetheless, he emphasized that "we and the Israelis are absolutely on the same page on the need to fight terror and the principles that any Palestinian government with which the rest of the world and the Israelis could work need to meet the Quartet principles. Everybody agrees on that."
Meanwhile, leading members of the House and Senate are circulating letters urging the United States and its European allies not to relax their standards and to adhere to the three basic conditions demanded of a Palestinian government.
The House letter urges the European Union not to give aid or grant recognition to the Palestinian Authority until the PA recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts past Israel-Palestinian agreements. The Senate letter urges Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice to resist pressure from other countries to grant aid and recognition to the PA before it meets the three international conditions.
Rice coming for another visit
In this midst of these diplomatic decisions, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's is scheduled to visit on Friday Egypt, Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in an effort to make progress on Middle East peace.
The trip's timing appears less than ideal given Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's announcement that he plans to shun the entire Palestinian unity government because it has not fully accepted three international conditions.
While the government pledged to respect past peace deals, it has not recognized Israel or renounced violence, the two other conditions set by the Quartet (the European Union, Russia, the United States and the United Nations) for lifting a Western aid embargo imposed after Hamas won elections last year.
McCormack told reporters Rice's trip would begin with a stop in the southern Egyptian city of Aswan, where she will meet ministers from the so-called Arab "quartet" of Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates as well as Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.
She will then travel to Jerusalem and Ramallah, to Amman for talks with Jordan's King Abdullah, and then back to Israel for more contacts with Israeli and Palestinian officials. The spokesman said she plans to return to Washington on March 27.
Yitzhak Benhorin contributed to this report
