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Israel - No peace before security Rice urges Middle East peace deal
(about 8 hours later)
Israel has told the US there can be no deal for a Palestinian state unless its own security is guaranteed. A two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians is now needed more urgently than ever, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has said.
Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni told visiting US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that security for her country had to come first. Ms Rice also urged Arab states to accept a peaceful and permanent home for Israel.
Ms Rice is in the region to prepare the ground for a planned peace conference in the US city of Annapolis, Maryland, later this month. Israel has said there can be no deal for a Palestinian state unless its own security is guaranteed.
She will later hold a news conference with Middle East envoy Tony Blair. Ms Rice is in the region to prepare the ground for a planned peace conference in the US later this month.
On Monday, Ms Rice will travel to the West Bank for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. But she said on Sunday that she was not yet ready to set a date for the conference.
Nobody wants to see another terror state in the region Tzipi Livni, Israeli foreign minister Ms Livni insisted that progress could be made once the Palestinians agreed to implement their obligations under a long-stalled US-backed "road map" for peace. Speaking at an event in Jerusalem, also attended by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and international envoy former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, Ms Rice said the US would continue to work for a peaceful settlement in the region.
Mr Olmert expressed optimism that progress could be made on the issue before US President George W Bush left office in January 2009.
Earlier on Sunday Ms Rice met separately with both Mr Olmert and with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni for talks.
Nobody wants to see another terror state in the region Tzipi LivniIsraeli foreign minister At a joint press conference Ms Livni said that security for Israel had to come first before any deal could be reached.
Ms Livni insisted that progress could be made once the Palestinians agreed to implement their obligations under a long-stalled US-backed "road map" for peace.
"The meaning is security for Israel first and then the establishment of a Palestinian state," she said. "Nobody wants to see another terror state in the region.""The meaning is security for Israel first and then the establishment of a Palestinian state," she said. "Nobody wants to see another terror state in the region."
Israel has been concerned about the takeover of Gaza in June by the Islamist movement Hamas, which does not recognise the state of Israel and is branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU.Israel has been concerned about the takeover of Gaza in June by the Islamist movement Hamas, which does not recognise the state of Israel and is branded a terrorist organisation by Israel, the US and the EU.
Mr Abbas's Fatah group remains in control of the West Bank. Low expectations
'Knotty discussions' On Monday, Ms Rice will travel to the West Bank for talks with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah group remains in control there.
Ms Rice is on her eighth visit to the region this year, hoping to inject life into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But expectations of her visit and the Maryland conference are low.Ms Rice is on her eighth visit to the region this year, hoping to inject life into the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. But expectations of her visit and the Maryland conference are low.
The Palestinians want a clear timetable for resolving some of the most sensitive issues in the conflict, including the status of Jerusalem and the borders of a Palestinian state.The Palestinians want a clear timetable for resolving some of the most sensitive issues in the conflict, including the status of Jerusalem and the borders of a Palestinian state.
Israel has rejected written deadlines, saying the whole process can be damaged if they are missed.Israel has rejected written deadlines, saying the whole process can be damaged if they are missed.
The two sides have been holding an intensive round of bilateral talks but Ms Rice admitted her aim for now was just to encourage Israelis and Palestinians to keep trying. The former Palestinian Prime Minister, Ismail Haniya of Hamas, on Sunday urged President Abbas not to attend the Maryland conference.
"I don't expect to reach an agreement on a document," she told reporters on the plane to Tel Aviv on Saturday evening. In a speech in Gaza City, he said the meeting would not be in the Palestinians' interests and would have detrimental repercussions for the whole region.
"They are going through some knotty discussions and I think those knotty discussions are going to continue for a while... I just want to help make sure that they are working in a straight line ahead." Mr Haniya and Hamas have not been invited to the US-led talks.