Spring Break
Rice sees difficulties in Middle East peace talks
Matthew Lee - Associated Press
Issue date: 8/26/08 Section: News
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"I think it's extremely important just to keep making forward progress, rather than trying prematurely to come to some set of conclusions," Rice said, dismissing speculation she wants both sides to sign onto a statement documenting their progress nine months into a secretive and publicly fruitless series of talks.
Although Israel released about 200 Palestinian prisoners in a sign of good will shortly before she arrived, the peace talks - launched with great fanfare at the Annapolis, Md., peace conference in November - have bogged down, even after deliberate lowering of expectations.
The two sides remain publicly pledged to an ambitious end-of-year target for a settlement of the hardest issues in the six-decade conflict, and Rice said that remains the goal. She allowed that leaves "a lot of work ahead," and she urged the two sides to at least agree on small, incremental steps.
In contrast to her past upbeat insistence that public silence masked private progress, Rice had a matter-of-fact assessment ahead of two days of meetings with negotiators and leaders on both sides.
"Obviously it's a complicated time, but it's always complicated out here," she said in a news conference aboard her plane. She gave no prognosis for U.S.-backed talks that have failed to yield obvious successes or much public confidence. Israeli newspapers barely cover Rice's frequent visits now. Israeli officials have been backing away from that timetable in recent weeks, and Palestinian officials have all but declared the process fruitless.
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