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Rice Says on Al-Jazeera U.S. is Pushing for Israel-Palestinian Talks
DOHA, Oct 16 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - The United States is pushing to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table, U.S. national security adviser Condaleeza Rice said in an interview, news agencies reported.
"We took note of the very fruitful discussions between Prime Minister [Tony] Blair and Chairman [Yasser] Arafat," in London on Monday, Rice told the Qatari-based Al-Jazeera satellite television channel.
"The United States fully agrees that as soon as possible we should get into the Mitchell process which lays out a road map for meaningful political negotiations toward a final status," she said.
"I believe it is the way to get to final status negotiations. We have to work step by step in order to get to final status negotiations," Rice added.
The Mitchell report calls for an immediate and unconditional halt to violence followed by a period of calm for confidence-building measures to be implemented, including a total freeze on Israeli settlement, before a resumption of final status talks, reported Agence France-Presse (AFP).
Rice also laid out the role to be played by U.S. President George W. Bush.
"The President has been very active in asking both sides to do what they can to make certain that we get into the Mitchell process," she said.
"He has asked Chairman Arafat to make a 100% effort to arrest and deal with terrorism and violence towards Israel.
"He has asked Prime Minister [Ariel] Sharon to do nothing to make the situation worse, and indeed, the Israelis pulled out of Hebron. We have taken note of that."
Rice recalled that Bush had "clearly and publicly announced that he believes that a Palestinian state in the Middle East is necessary provided it recognizes the existence of Israel."
Blair and Arafat launched a new Middle East peace push Monday, with the Palestinian President calling for a resumption of talks with Israel and the British prime minister calling for creation of a "viable" Palestinian state.
During the 16-minute interview, Rice said Washington continued to consider the possibility of meeting between Arafat and Bush, that the United States would act if Iraq threatened U.S. interests and that Washington had warned Syria to "get out of the business of sponsoring terrorism."
Rice told al-Jazeera the United States embodied religious tolerance and a belief that all people should live together in peace, but she acknowledged it needed to do more to convince many Muslims of this. "We're trying to do a better job of getting that message out to people," she said.
"The president of the United States understands Islam to be a faith of peace, a faith that protects innocents, and the policy of the United States is to do the same," Rice said in the interview.
"We cannot believe that Islam would countenance the kind of destruction of innocents that we saw on September 11," she said. More than 5,000 people were killed when hijacked airliners were flown into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon there.
Rice told the interviewer she had "respect for al-Jazeera," and said other administration officials would appear on the channel. She said earlier there were no plans for Bush to appear.
"It's important that there be a network that reaches broad Arab audiences. And the United States believes in freedom of the press," she said.
Rice said the United States worried about Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's attempts to acquire weapons of mass destruction and that, for now, Bush would "watch and monitor" Iraq. "Certainly, the United States will act if Iraq threatens its interests," she said.
Rice said the United States still wanted to change sanctions on Iraq to target them more at Saddam's regime rather than the Iraqi people.
On Sunday, Rice told CBS's 60 Minutes program, that according to her, the thousands who demonstrate in Muslim countries against U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan do not reflect the true feelings of Muslims.
"You're seeing thousands of people demonstrate in countries that have millions of people," Rice told the program.
The U.S. campaign entered its second week Sunday as Bush rejected an offer by Afghanistan's ruling Taliban to extradite bin Laden to a neutral country.
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