03 March 2009

U.S. Will Work Vigorously for Independent Palestinian State

Secretary Clinton says there is no time to waste

Secretary of State Clinton, left, meets with Israeli President Shimon Peres in Jerusalem March 3.

By Merle David Kellerhals Jr.
Staff Writer

Washington — The United States will continue to work with Israelis and Palestinians to create a peace accord that includes the creation of an independent Palestinian state.

“The United States will be vigorously engaged in the pursuit of a two-state solution every step of the way,” Clinton said March 3 at a Jerusalem press briefing. “The road ahead, we acknowledge, is a difficult one, but there is no time to waste.”

“It is our assessment ... that eventually, the inevitability of working toward a two-state solution seems inescapable.”

Clinton, who is making her first visit to the Middle East since becoming secretary of state, held meetings with Israeli President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Prime Minister-designate Benjamin Netanyahu prior to a dinner meeting with current Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

The secretary is scheduled to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on March 4 in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

A significant component of U.S. policy in the Middle East is to work for a peace accord between the Israelis and Palestinians that will lead to Palestinian statehood. Peace talks that were revived in late 2007 at a conference in the United States have stalled following an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 aimed at halting rocket attacks by the terrorist group Hamas. Hamas seized control of Gaza from the ruling Palestinian Authority in 2007.

Secretary of State Clinton, left, met with Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Siniora March 2 at Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.

Clinton said one of the first steps needed now is a durable cease-fire, which means daily rocket attacks by Hamas into southern Israel must end. She said that between 15 and 18 rockets were fired into Israel from Gaza in the last several days.

“No nation should be expected to sit idly by and allow rockets to assault its people and its territories,” she said. “These attacks must stop and so must the smuggling of weapons into Gaza.”

“That is the double reality that we're facing here. We have a humanitarian challenge in Gaza with a lot of innocent Palestinians in need of the help that could be provided, and Hamas decides to continue to rain rockets down on Israel.”

During an international conference March 2, the United States pledged $900 million in assistance to the Palestinians, with a third of it going to help people in Gaza and the remainder going to the Palestinian Authority, which controls the West Bank territories. (See “United States Pledges $900 Million for Palestinians.”)

SYRIAN ENVOYS

Clinton also announced that the United States was sending two envoys to Syria to conduct “preliminary conversations.” State Department acting deputy spokesman Gordon Duguid said March 3 in Washington that Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs Jeffrey Felton would lead the American delegation to Damascus along with Daniel Shapiro from the White House.

There are a number of issues the United States wants to address with the Damascus government, Clinton said. The last senior U.S. official to visit Damascus was then-Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage in January 2005.

“We have no way to predict what the future with our relations concerning Syria might be. … We don't engage in discussions for the sake of having a conversation,” Clinton said. “But I think it is a worthwhile effort to go and begin these preliminary conversations.”

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