Rice in new Mideast visit to prepare for conference
By Jeffrey Heller
JERUSALEM, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returns to the Middle East on Sunday to try to help Israel and the Palestinians agree on parameters for a U.S.-sponsored conference on Palestinian statehood.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams have been meeting to hammer out a joint document addressing "core issues" for the international gathering expected to be held late next month in Annapolis, Maryland.
Israel has sought, at this stage, to address in general terms the most divisive aspects of the Middle East conflict -- borders, the future of the holy city of Jerusalem, and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists in June, has been pressing for a document with a timetable for dealing with those issues and moving Palestinians closer to statehood.
Rice is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and travel to the occupied West Bank to see Abbas during her five-day visit, which will include trips to Egypt and Jordan.
During her previous visit last month to Israel and the West Bank, Rice urged both sides to draft a document laying the basis for serious negotiations at the conference, which Washington hopes will attract wide Arab participation.
Ahmed Qurie, the Palestinian chief negotiator, told reporters on Saturday the document should "include the principles of a settlement in a clear manner".
He said the Palestinians have put Washington on notice that "the failure of the November conference will have bad consequences not only for the Palestinians and the Israelis but for the region as a whole".
Western officials have told Reuters Olmert has privately signalled a willingness to consider handing over "90-something" percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip, with additional land swaps, as part of a final peace deal.
That may put the two sides within a few percentage points of consensus on the territory issue ahead of the Annapolis meeting.
But Israeli, Palestinian and Western officials said last week real progress would depend on narrowing differences over the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that has not won international recognition.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after its capture in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians also want a right to return to homes in what is now the Jewish state. Israel says a wholesale influx of refugees would destroy its character as a Jewish state and a solution to the refugees' plight should be found within the borders of a future Palestinian homeland.
JERUSALEM, Oct 14 (Reuters) - U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice returns to the Middle East on Sunday to try to help Israel and the Palestinians agree on parameters for a U.S.-sponsored conference on Palestinian statehood.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams have been meeting to hammer out a joint document addressing "core issues" for the international gathering expected to be held late next month in Annapolis, Maryland.
Israel has sought, at this stage, to address in general terms the most divisive aspects of the Middle East conflict -- borders, the future of the holy city of Jerusalem, and the fate of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who lost control of the Gaza Strip to Hamas Islamists in June, has been pressing for a document with a timetable for dealing with those issues and moving Palestinians closer to statehood.
Rice is to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Jerusalem and travel to the occupied West Bank to see Abbas during her five-day visit, which will include trips to Egypt and Jordan.
During her previous visit last month to Israel and the West Bank, Rice urged both sides to draft a document laying the basis for serious negotiations at the conference, which Washington hopes will attract wide Arab participation.
Ahmed Qurie, the Palestinian chief negotiator, told reporters on Saturday the document should "include the principles of a settlement in a clear manner".
He said the Palestinians have put Washington on notice that "the failure of the November conference will have bad consequences not only for the Palestinians and the Israelis but for the region as a whole".
Western officials have told Reuters Olmert has privately signalled a willingness to consider handing over "90-something" percent of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip, with additional land swaps, as part of a final peace deal.
That may put the two sides within a few percentage points of consensus on the territory issue ahead of the Annapolis meeting.
But Israeli, Palestinian and Western officials said last week real progress would depend on narrowing differences over the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
Israel considers all of Jerusalem its capital, a claim that has not won international recognition.
The Palestinians want East Jerusalem, annexed by Israel after its capture in the 1967 Middle East war, as the capital of the state they hope to establish in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Palestinians also want a right to return to homes in what is now the Jewish state. Israel says a wholesale influx of refugees would destroy its character as a Jewish state and a solution to the refugees' plight should be found within the borders of a future Palestinian homeland.
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