Tentative talks between Israel and the Palestinians aimed at restarting the peace process could begin next month, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during meetings in Europe to rally support from British and German leaders.
A three-way meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would likely take place in the Middle East in the first half of next month but not constitute formal negotiations, Rice said.
Rice briefed German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin and said that US, German and other diplomats would convene a Middle East strategy session early next month in Washington.
Rice later held talks with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and British Foreign Secretary Margaret Beckett. Blair has made the task of reviving peace talks a key goal of his final months in office. He toured the region last month.
Rice said her planned discussions with Olmert and Abbas would form a peacemaking summit ahead of later talks to tackle the toughest issues.
"We're not yet at the point where I think we can determine what we would do about formal negotiations, when and if" they can occur, Rice said. "It's really a time to try to get the parties into more of a confidence-building phase and we'll see what comes after that."
Both leaders have suffered blows to their authority in the last year: Olmert by last summer's disappointing war in Lebanon and allegations of political corruption in his ranks; Abbas by his year-long internal power struggle with Hamas radicals.
The British leader, who will step down by September, met Rice without his staff present, and had planned to brief his advisers on the session yesterday, a Downing Street spokesman said.
Rice acknowledged that the requirements of the 2003 step-by-step plan for Palestinian statehood, known as the "road map," had become something of an obstacle in restarting talks between the two sides, but she said it remains the guideline.
As Rice touched down in London, Blair faced a political storm as a senior Cabinet minister denounced US President George W. Bush's administration as the most "right wing in living memory."
Blair's Northern Ireland secretary, Peter Hain, said in an interview published on Thursday that Bush's "neo-con unilateralism" had damaged the fight against global terrorism and "taken the world's eyes off the ball of solving the Middle East conflict."
"It's not only failed to provide a coherent international policy, it's failed wherever it's been tried," Hain was quoted as telling New Statesman magazine.
Kehinde Sanni spends his days smoothing out dents and repainting scratched bumpers in a modest autobody shop in Lagos. He has never left Nigeria, yet he speaks glowingly of Burkina Faso military leader Ibrahim Traore. “Nigeria needs someone like Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso. He is doing well for his country,” Sanni said. His admiration is shaped by a steady stream of viral videos, memes and social media posts — many misleading or outright false — portraying Traore as a fearless reformer who defied Western powers and reclaimed his country’s dignity. The Burkinabe strongman swept into power following a coup in September 2022
‘FRAGMENTING’: British politics have for a long time been dominated by the Labor Party and the Tories, but polls suggest that Reform now poses a significant challenge Hard-right upstarts Reform UK snatched a parliamentary seat from British Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s Labor Party yesterday in local elections that dealt a blow to the UK’s two establishment parties. Reform, led by anti-immigrant firebrand Nigel Farage, won the by-election in Runcorn and Helsby in northwest England by just six votes, as it picked up gains in other localities, including one mayoralty. The group’s strong showing continues momentum it built up at last year’s general election and appears to confirm a trend that the UK is entering an era of multi-party politics. “For the movement, for the party it’s a very, very big
ENTERTAINMENT: Rio officials have a history of organizing massive concerts on Copacabana Beach, with Madonna’s show drawing about 1.6 million fans last year Lady Gaga on Saturday night gave a free concert in front of 2 million fans who poured onto Copacabana Beach in Rio de Janeiro for the biggest show of her career. “Tonight, we’re making history... Thank you for making history with me,” Lady Gaga told a screaming crowd. The Mother Monster, as she is known, started the show at about 10:10pm local time with her 2011 song Bloody Mary. Cries of joy rose from the tightly packed fans who sang and danced shoulder-to-shoulder on the vast stretch of sand. Concert organizers said 2.1 million people attended the show. Lady Gaga
SUPPORT: The Australian prime minister promised to back Kyiv against Russia’s invasion, saying: ‘That’s my government’s position. It was yesterday. It still is’ Left-leaning Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese yesterday basked in his landslide election win, promising a “disciplined, orderly” government to confront cost-of-living pain and tariff turmoil. People clapped as the 62-year-old and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, who visited his old inner Sydney haunt, Cafe Italia, surrounded by a crowd of jostling photographers and journalists. Albanese’s Labor Party is on course to win at least 83 seats in the 150-member parliament, partial results showed. Opposition leader Peter Dutton’s conservative Liberal-National coalition had just 38 seats, and other parties 12. Another 17 seats were still in doubt. “We will be a disciplined, orderly
RSS