Ramallah - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Ramallah early Friday afternoon for talks with President Mahmoud Abbas, a day after the US conceded that Israel and the Palestinians will not reach a peace deal by their end of year deadline.
Rice had landed in the region Thursday ahead of a crucial briefing in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt on Sunday on the peace process.
Tel Aviv - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice landed in Israel Thursday for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders ahead of Sunday's meeting in Egypt of international sponsors of the current Middle East peace negotiations.
She is scheduled to meet Caretaker Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in Tel Aviv in the afternoon and head to the nearby coastal town of Herzliya Pituah for talks and dinner with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni at the residence of US ambassador James Cunningham in the evening, an embassy spokesman said.
Gaza - The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement said Thursday that any extension of the nearly-five-month-old truce in the Gaza Strip depended on the level of commitment Israel showed to it.
The Egyptian-mediated truce, which came into being on June 19, has been battered in recent days by an Israeli raid to destroy a tunnel being built under the Gaza border, and subsequent militant rocket attacks from the salient.
Tel Aviv, Gaza - A fragile Israeli-Palestinian truce in the Gaza Strip took a battering overnight Tuesday and on Wednesday as Israeli troops raided the salient and militants launched a barrage of rockets at the south of the Jewish state in response.
Jerusalem, Ramallah - Israeli and Palestinian leaders welcomed Wednesday the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential election, with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni calling it a "badge of honour" and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to get involved in the peace process "immediately."
"President Abbas looks forward to working with the new US administration to speed up the work and push the peace process forward," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told the official Palestinian Wafa news agency from Budapest, where Abbas is visiting.
Ramallah/Gaza City - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas congratulated US president-elect Barack Obama Wednesday, and urged him to get involved in the Middle East peace process "immediately."
"President Abbas looks forward to working with the new US administration to speed up the work and push the peace process forward," his spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh told the official Palestinian Wafa news agency from Budapest, where Abbas is visiting.
Abbas urged Obama to do it "immediately so as to bring security and stability to the Middle East region," he said.
Ramallah - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice arrived in Ramallah early Friday afternoon for talks with President Mahmoud Abbas, a day after the US conceded that Israel and the Palestinians will not reach a peace deal by their end of year deadline.
Tel Aviv - US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice landed in Israel Thursday for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders ahead of Sunday's meeting in Egypt of international sponsors of the current Middle East peace negotiations.
Gaza - The armed wing of the Palestinian Islamist Hamas movement said Thursday that any extension of the nearly-five-month-old truce in the Gaza Strip depended on the level of commitment Israel showed to it.
Tel Aviv, Gaza - A fragile Israeli-Palestinian truce in the Gaza Strip took a battering overnight Tuesday and on Wednesday as Israeli troops raided the salient and militants launched a barrage of rockets at the south of the Jewish state in response.
Jerusalem, Ramallah - Israeli and Palestinian leaders welcomed Wednesday the victory of Barack Obama in the US presidential election, with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni calling it a "badge of honour" and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas urging him to get involved in the peace process "immediately."
