Rice loses support for parallel talks

• Article
• Comments ()
• Click-2-Listen
• Videos

By

JERUSALEM -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice's effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stumbled yesterday when Israel balked at a proposal for the United States to hold parallel negotiations with both sides on an eventual peace treaty.

At the same time, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sounded upbeat about the prospects for a regional peace summit pushed by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.

During the course of a day shuttling between Palestinian and Jordanian leaders in Amman and Israeli leaders in Jerusalem, Miss Rice was forced to delay by 12 hours until this morning a statement expected to chart the future of talks aimed at setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

Israel Channel 2 news said that Mr. Olmert won't discuss Israel's objections to negotiating thorny final issues, such as the status of Jerusalem, and is uncomfortable with the idea of Miss Rice serving as intermediary with the Palestinians.

Miss Rice tried to fend off the notion that her proposal for parallel talks was overstepping the traditional U.S. mediation role.

"I don't intend by any means to take control of the Palestinian-Israel bilateral dialogue," she said.

The secretary of state has made repeated trips to the region in the past six months in an effort to restart Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a six-year freeze.

The push has been complicated by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' unity agreement with Hamas, which prompted Mr. Olmert to step back from a willingness to discuss substantive issues related to a final peace agreement.

Another concern is that Mr. Olmert is too weak politically to make unpopular concessions.