'Creativity' needed for Mideast peace: Rice

Last Updated: Saturday, January 13, 2007 | 7:28 PM ET

CBC News

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Jerusalem Saturday in the first stop of her latest Mideast tour in an attempt to renew peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

Rice will meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas Sunday in the West Bank, before meeting with other Arab leaders during the weeklong trip to garner support for President George W. Bush's new Iraq strategy.

Condoleezza Rice said any plan for enduring Mideast peace must involve Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.
(Matty Stern-United States Embassy/Associated Press)

Before a meeting Saturday evening with Israel's foreign minister, Tzipi Livni, Rice said she did not carry a specific plan with her to the region. 

But she warned that an enduring peace must involve Arab states such as Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia.

"And I think no plan can be made in America," she said. "There are too many important stakeholders and any progress on the Palestinian-Israeli front is going to require all of the parties."

She said any progress would require political risk-taking from Israeli and Palestinian leaders, and some resolution to escalating divides in the Palestinian ranks.

"This is a very important and challenging time in the Middle East, but a time that I believe does have promise if we exercise our responsibilities with creativity and with resolve."

U.S. plans to boost Abbas's security forces

The United States wants to move more swiftly to shore up Abbas, who is locked in a power struggle with rival faction Hamas and grasping for ways to demonstrate progress.

To reward Abbas for standing firm against Hamas, the Bush administration soon will ask Congress to approve $85 million US to train and equip Abbas's security forces. Israel supports the plan.

"Part of our responsibility is to give the moderate Palestinians a political horizon while providing the Israelis security," Livni said.

Ahead of Rice's visit Saturday, Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas accused Israel and the U.S. of trying to fan the flames of a Palestinian civil war.

Tensions between Hamas and Abbas's Fatah movement have been reduced in recent days, with both leaders calling for unity after weeks of clashes and feuding between the rival factions.