Condoleezza Rice arrived in the Middle East on Sunday to lay the ground for a showpiece meeting to be held this year in the US that is designed to advance Palestinian statehood and lift the fortunes of the beleaguered US administration.
But as the clock starts ticking on the meeting, provisionally scheduled for late November in Annapolis, near Washington, the US secretary of state was confronted with the conflicting expectations of the Israelis and Palestinians on a document setting out the parameters of a final peace deal.
Ahead of her arrival in Israel on Sunday, Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, told his cabinet that a joint statement was not a condition for holding the Annapolis meeting.
Israeli officials have been arguing that a statement, in any case, should be vaguely worded and without a timetable for implementation.
The Palestinians, however, are looking for Annapolis to secure commitments on the shape of a future state, the status of Arab East Jerusalem, which they want as their capital, and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
The Palestinians say that without a joint declaration there is little point in holding a conference next month and insist any framework understanding should include a timetable. Ahmad Qurei, the former Palestinian prime minister and chief negotiator, said at the weekend the document should address the principles of a final settlement “in a clear manner”.
Mr Olmert faces pressure from the Israeli right wing and from some of his coalition partners. To gauge the opposition to talks about so-called “final status” issues, Ms Rice is due to meet leaders of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, a government coalition partner that has warned the prime minister to stick to economic discussions at Annapolis.
Ms Rice’s visit, which also takes her to the West Bank city of Ramallah and to Egypt, marks the latest US diplomatic push to revive the peace process and lift the fortunes of the Washington administration.
Political analysts and Arab officials, however, have expressed doubts that the US will exert pressure on its Israeli ally to produce a framework agreement that Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian leader, could market to his own people, particularly when his control only extends to the West Bank.
The Islamist Hamas, which has taken over the Gaza Strip following the collapse of a national unity government, has warned that the Annapolis meeting is a “trap” and told Mr Abbas not to make concessions on the key issues of borders, Jerusalem and refugees.
Saudi Arabia, which Washington and Israel want to take part in the Annapolis talks, has also tied its participation to the achievement of substantial progress.
“This is really work in progress,” Ms Rice said on her way to Tel Aviv. “I don’t expect . . . there will be any particular outcome in the sense of breakthroughs on the document.”
Declaring that she was suspicious of timetables, she suggested she viewed the Annapolis meeting as a forum where “everyone will want to have a sense that once the process of negotiations begins that it’s going to continue and to have a sort of forward momentum”.
Ms Rice called on Israel, in the meantime, not to take actions that could undermine progress, amid Palestinian outrage at Israeli plans to appropriate land from Arab villages in East Jerusalem for a road link to the large Jewish settlement of Maale Adumim.
“We have to be very careful, as we are trying to move toward the establishment of a Palestinian state, of actions and statements that erode confidence in the parties’ commitment to a two-state solution,” she said. “Even if the intentions are good and . . . the events on the ground are intended to produce a certain kind of outcome, this is a very delicate time <-> It’s just a time to be extremely careful.”
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