CAIRO: U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday held talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at his leadership headquarters in the West Bank town of Ramallah. Rice arrived in Ramallah from Jerusalem where she met representatives of the young guard of the president s moderate Fatah party and independent Palestinian MPs at the US consulate. Rice on Tuesday called on Islamic militants to cooperate with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, saying the Hamas government cannot govern in the region. Rice got both a polite hearing and a lecture Tuesday from United States two most powerful friends in the Arab world. Saudi Arabia and Egypt both said the Middle East s many volatile conflicts are hinged to Israel s long conflict with the Palestinians. Arab nations, including the few moderate states that are key to U.S. goals in Iraq, Iran and Lebanon, view improving the Palestinians lot as essential. They argue that the festering grievances of the stateless Palestinians feed unrest and radicalism elsewhere. The issue is how to make peace, and in order to make peace you have to identify the problem, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said during a sometimes strained news conference with Rice. We think and we claim and we keep telling everybody that it is the Palestinian problem, and the lack of a settlement for the Palestinians. The Palestinian problem is the scourge of this region, Gheit said. Saudi Foreign Minister Saud Al-Faisal said the nearly 60-year-old conflict was creating a breeding ground for extremism. There is a very short step from extremism to terrorism, Saud said with Rice by his side in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. And ever since the problem arose of Palestinian-Israeli conflict, the region has been destabilized. Rice s talks in Ramallah will be the administration s third meeting in less than three weeks with Abbas, whom President George W. Bush called a man of courage for trying to revive Middle East peace talks. Rice wants Saudi Arabia and Egypt to put greater diplomatic muscle behind the secular Palestinian president in his standoff with Hamas militants, and to bolster moderate secular governments in Lebanon and Iraq. Rice met in Cairo with diplomats from Egypt and seven other Arab allies in hopes of reviving the moribund Arab-Israeli peace process and making headway on other regional issues. During that session the ministers of the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council and Egypt and Jordan gave broad support to Abbas, Rice said. Rice also urged Egypt on Tuesday to take a lead in democratic reform in the Middle East but Egypt s top diplomat said his country would pursue reform at its own pace. Washington has criticized Cairo several times this year over its human rights record and crackdown on political dissent, although analysts and opposition figures say these rebukes lacked teeth because they came with no threat of any economic or political consequences. Rice said she discussed the issue of democratic reforms with Abul-Gheit, and reiterated Washington s stance that it expected Egypt, one of its closest allies in the Middle East, to lead the way to democracy in the region. The United States will continue to speak about the importance of democracy, about the importance of a great nation like Egypt leading the move to democracy in this region, she told a news conference with Abu-Gheit in Cairo. We expect a lot from our friends. We consider Egypt a friend, and so it remains a part of our agenda, she said. Abul-Gheit, however, said his country needed more time to pursue reforms. This society is taking off. Next year will witness major, major amendments to the Egyptian constitution, he said. Not everything in this country is done in haste and not everything is done in one day. We will move surely. We will move (at) our pace. Egyptian opposition groups say the United States is reluctant to put more pressure on Egypt because it needs Cairo as a bulwark against radical Islam and a friend in a region where anti-U.S. sentiment runs high. The lack of effective U.S. pressure, opposition figures and analysts say, could facilitate a transition of power from President Hosni Mubarak to his son Gamal Mubarak, one of the influential figures in the ruling National Democratic Party. The Mubarak family denies Gamal has any presidential ambitions. Asked about Washington s stance on the possibility the younger Mubarak might become the country s next president, Rice said: It is absolutely going to be up to the people of Egypt and the President of Egypt. Abul-Gheit interjected: Absolutely. This is not something on which the United States should, will or can have an opinion, Rice added. President George W. Bush last month praised a group of young reformers close to Gamal Mubarak, saying they understood the promise and the difficulties of democracy . Rice also said Washington supported Egypt s plans to develop peaceful nuclear energy, a suggestion the younger Mubarak floated last month that was then taken up by the president. We are supporters of states that may wish to go this way and we would be pleased to discuss this with Egypt as Egypt develops its plan, she said. Egypt is a longtime mediator among Palestinian factions and between Israel and the Palestinians, and its exasperation with Hamas may signal a turning point.Israel wants to reopen dialogue with Abbas and work with him to establish a Palestinian state. But Abbas has been in a weakened position since January when Hamas, which seeks the destruction of Israel, won the Palestinian elections.
