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JERUSALEM - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice kicked off a Middle East tour today to take another crack at reviving the peace process but without a specific plan to resolve the conflict.
She was due to hold talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders before heading to Arab capitals to rally support for a new US strategy in Iraq and to counter Iran's alleged interference in the war-ravaged country.
Rice has said she has no specific plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but is coming to listen.
"I am not coming with a proposal. I am not coming with a plan," she told the accompanying press during a stopover in Shannon, Ireland.
"A couple of things are crystal clear -- if you don't lay groundwork very well, it is not going to succeed.
"And I think no plan can be 'Made in America'. There are too many important stakeholders and any progress on the Israeli-Palestinian front is going to require all of the parties."
Rice was due to meet Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni later today before travelling to Ramallah tomorrow to talk with Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
She will then meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday.
Diplomatic sources in Jerusalem have suggested that Rice may not be pushing a firm plan because of the political weakness of both Olmert and Abbas.
Olmert returned home from a trip to China yesterday amid further allegations of corruption at the highest levels of Israeli politics and speculation that a new investigation may be opened into his own affairs.
His ratings are at an all-time low with a poll this week giving him the approval of just 14 per cent of respondents.
As for Abbas, he and his Fatah party are engaged in a deadly power struggle with the ruling Islamist movement Hamas that has left more than 30 people dead over the past month and completely shifted the Palestinian focus away from ending the Israeli occupation.
The two parties have been haggling for months over forming a government of national unity and some sort of common ground on how to deal with Israel, but have made no progress.
Hamas refuses to recognise Israel or renounce violence, and is boycotted by Israel and the West as a terrorist group.
A statement from the group today said Rice's trip would "only contribute to creating divisions and dissensions in the region" and warned against "attempts by the Americans and certain parties to force ... the Palestinians to make fundamental concessions."
Prime Minister Ismail Haniya accused Washington of trying to foment a Palestinian civil war.
"The American and Israeli policies seek to push the Palestinian people towards civil war and internal conflict so that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict becomes a Palestinian-Palestinian conflict," he said in a televised address.
Rice said she would be talking with the two sides about "how we can accelerate the (Middle East peace) roadmap ... and how we begin to talk about the political horizon that everybody is interested in."
The roadmap was drawn up nearly four years ago but has lain virtually untouched since then. It envisions the creation of a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.
After leaving Israel, Rice will travel to Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Germany and Britain.
Her trip comes two days after US President George W Bush presented a new strategy to quell surging sectarian violence in Iraq with the deployment of 21,500 more troops.
Bush also declared a new initiative against Iranian and Syrian elements, which the United States accuses of destabilising Iraq.
Before her departure, Rice told US politicians her trip "will focus heavily on rallying the support of those responsible Arab states to support the government of Iraq, to support what needs to be done there."
Rice said on Thursday that it was vital to counter Iranian influence in Iraq and the region.
Amid rising tension with Iran, Washington announced on Thursday two aircraft carrier battle groups would stay in the Gulf for several months. That was the first time since just before the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, a US military official said.
- AFP
