US Secretary of State Rice stressed that the Palestinian and Israeli sides must reach a joint document to be presented to the international meeting next month. Rice promised that the conference would be serious and important; she stressed that the document is not an end by itself but aims to prove that there are bases for negotiations to establish a Palestinian state and hinted that US President Bush has placed this issue as one of top priorities of his administration. During a joint press conference with President Mahmoud Abbas after their meeting for several hours in Ramallah yesterday, she said: It is time for the establishment of a Palestinian state. She stressed on the need for refraining from acts that can sabotage the trust between the two sides in reference to the Israeli measures in Jerusalem. President Abbas held a closed meeting with Rice lasting 2.5 hours during which they also had lunch together. President Abbas revealed a package of measures that he demanded to be implemented in parallel with the final status talks, including halt of settlements, release of the detainees and prisoners, return of the deportees, opening the closed offices and institutions in East Jerusalem, ending the siege and closure and return to the conditions that prevailed before September 28, 2000 and implement the third phase of redeployment to become a basic component towards rebuilding of trust between both sides and create a real political horizon that can restore stability and re-launch the peace process with credibility. He pointed out in the press conference that the two Palestinian and Israeli delegations started working on the document. He said: of course, the document has to be ready before we go to Washington, as for the negotiations after that, they cannot be open forever; there is a need for a time ceiling so that we can conclude what be achieved in the next phase. We told Secretary Rice that the agenda must be clear and understood and well known and not an opportunity to take photos or other things. Everything must be clear in the conference and after that we can go to the negotiations within a time ceiling so that we can reach a peace treaty God Willing. This is what we seek to achieve and this is what we want to do in the next phase.

Rice responded by saying: there are many things that are better than inviting people to take photos in Annapolis. There is a need for making painful concessions, including Israel ratifying the principle of dividing the land. President Bush has decided to make this matter (peace) his top priorities while he is in the White House, so he is extremely serious on seeing progress in this matter and in achieving good results as soon as possible. Now, we are talking about a document pertaining to the basic issues and we have gone a long way but we still have lots to do but we are not tired and I will not rest until the last moment in my post to achieve this mission. Abbas said: We are exerting all efforts to make the conference succeed and we are working on a joint document with the Israeli side to define the pillars and principles of solving the final status issues which are Jerusalem, borders, settlements, refugees, security, water and mutual relations. President Abbas said: In this context, I demanded from Secretary Rice to help us in halting the settlement activities, including the natural growth of the settlements, as stipulated in the roadmap and to halt the construction of the Expansion and Annexation Wall and to cancel the decision to confiscate lands in Abu Deis, Ezarieh, Sawahreh to expand Maale Adumim Settlement in E-1 Zone, and to halt the excavation works at Magharbeh Gate and in the area of al-Aqsa Mosque. He said: We exerting all efforts to enforce the rule of the law and the sole authority and the sole legitimate weapon. President Abbas stressed that there is a need to retreat from the coup in Gaza Strip and remove all its results and return to the Palestinian legitimacy which is one entity that cannot be fragmented.

On the agenda of the conference, Rice said there is a clear agenda for the conference which is to work based on international principles to support the efforts of the Palestinians and Israelis to solve their conflict and this is a very clear agenda and of course this means handling several basic issues that have to be solved eventually if we want to reach to the Palestinian state and this must include the issue of improving the lives of Palestinians with regards to their freedom of movement and this requires the support from the regional countries and the international community, so there is an agenda but we have not sent out the invitations because we want the work of this bilateral track continue to achieve the international conference. She stressed: the conference will be important and of content and will pose the issue of establishing the Palestinian state.

In the meantime, Rice said the document that the Palestinians and Israelis are trying to reach does not need to be detailed and does not need a timetable. She explained after talks in Ramallah: I have said that there is a need to prepare a serious and core document that tackles the basic issues. The document does not need to be detailed in order to be serious and to include core issues. Abbas and Olmert said they hope that the document would show their agreement on the presence of a base to move ahead towards establishing a Palestinian state. This is what I mean when I talk about core and serious document which does not need to be detailed. On the need for a time ceiling, Rice opposed including a timetable in the joint document. She said: I am not sure that we desire a timetable to outline what to do at a certain date.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper on October 16, 2007