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Abbas ready to move ahead on peace talks

An Israeli soldier holds a Palestinian boy dressed as a Native American during a protest addressed at U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Hawara checkpoint in the West Bank town of Nablus on Sunday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)
Paul Richter and Richard Boudreaux Los Angeles Times
An Israeli soldier holds a Palestinian boy dressed as a Native American during a protest addressed at U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the Hawara checkpoint in the West Bank town of Nablus on Sunday. (Associated Press / The Spokesman-Review)

RAMALLAH, West Bank – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Sunday implored Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for help moving stalled peace talks with Israel toward their final stage.

Meeting with Rice as she made a five-day tour of the Middle East, Abbas said he was willing to push ahead to final negotiations “in back channels, in open channels, in secret channels, any way it can be achieved,” said Saeb Erekat, a veteran Palestinian negotiator who sat in on part of the discussions.

Erekat said Rice listened during the two-hour meeting at Abbas’ offices in Ramallah, but left without promises.

Rice’s trip, her third to the region since September, comes at a time when a number of Arab and Israeli peace proposals are circulating and the United States is under pressure from allies to produce results. Yet there is skepticism among many Israelis and Palestinians, as well as outside observers, about the prospects for progress and the seriousness of the Bush administration’s commitment.

Although there have been reports that the U.S. team is casting about for a bold new approach, many observers doubt progress is likely at a time while Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert are both politically weak and the Palestinian government is divided by factional fighting.

Rice said as she began her tour that she had neither proposals nor plans, but was she was ready to intensify her involvement.

“We have heard loud and clear the call for deeper American engagement,” Rice said in Ramallah. “You will have my commitment to do precisely that.”

Rice said it is time “to look at the political horizon and begin to show to the Palestinian people how we might move toward a Palestinian state.”

Rice met Saturday with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Amir Peretz, and on Sunday with Abbas and King Abdullah II of Jordan. She will meet early today with Olmert before flying to Egypt.

At the moment, the most visible proposal is that of Livni, who has called for the two sides to begin discussing what a final peace settlement would mean for the Palestinians.

The Israelis and Palestinians are working from the so-called “road map” peace plan, which calls for both to carry out steps in three stages with the goal of creating a separate Palestinian state. But the talks have bogged down over tough issues in the first stage, including requirements that the Palestinians forswear violence and recognize Israel and that the Israelis freeze settlement activity in the West Bank and dismantle unauthorized outposts.

Livni says that while she does not want to skip the first stage, she believes that if the two sides begin discussing the outcome, it can motivate Palestinians to make tough decisions required in early going. Her plan calls for setting up a transitional Palestinian state, within temporary borders, before the final deal.

But Abbas firmly rejected that idea Sunday during a news conference in Ramallah. He said he told Rice that the Palestinians would refuse “any temporary or transitional solutions, including a state with temporary borders, because we do not believe it to be a realistic choice that can be built upon.”