Palestinians urge Bush to press for settlement halt
RAMALLAH, West Bank (AFP) — The Palestinians on Monday called on US President George W. Bush to press Israel to freeze settlement activity when he visits the region this week in a bid to bolster the peace process.
Violence simmered ahead of the visit, with Israeli troops killing three armed Palestinians, including a woman, and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni saying operations against militants would continue even during peace negotiations.
"President Abbas considers President Bush's visit as historic and important and one that will advance the peace process," a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas told AFP.
"We are expecting that President Bush will get Israel to freeze settlement activity and that he will insist on the need to put an end to the Israeli occupation so as to lead to the creation of two states in line with his vision," said Nabil Abu Rudeina.
Israeli settlements on Arab land captured in the 1967 Six Day War -- all considered illegal by the international community -- are one of the most contentious issues of the decades-old Middle East conflict.
They have been a key source of discord between the two sides since they relaunched peace talks in late November after a break of nearly seven years and are expected to figure prominently at meetings during the Bush visit.
Abbas has repeatedly said that negotiations cannot succeed unless Israel halts settlement activity, and Bush described them as a "problem" in one interview given ahead of his trip.
The president arrives on Wednesday for a three-day stay -- his first since entering the Oval Office and the first by a sitting US president in nine years -- at the start of a regional tour to a number of allied Arab states.
Tensions have been running high ahead of his visit because of increased Israeli army incursions against militants in the Palestinian territories.
On Monday Israeli troops killed two armed Palestinians, including a woman, in northern Gaza and shot dead a gunman in the north of the West Bank, the army said.
Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad protested that Israeli incursions, including a three-day operation in Nablus last week, were "sabotaging" recent efforts by the Palestinian Authority to bring security to the West Bank.
But speaking with the army chief in the West Bank, Livni said Israel had no intention of halting its operations against militants "even during peace negotiations with the Palestinians."
"Israel has no intention to throw the keys at the other side at the end of negotiations and then hope for the best," a statement from her office quoted her as saying.
"That is why it is necessary to... continue the fight against terrorism and put in place on the Palestinian side efficient security forces so that we have a side with which to reach a deal," she said.
In talks with Livni later on Monday top Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei urged Israel to halt settlement activities and military action, a senior Palestinian official said.
"Israel must stop these settlement activities and military aggressions so that 2008 can be the year of peace," he said, according to senior negotiator Saeb Erakat who attended the meeting.
"We are building our security forces but the Israeli army entered the city of Nablus with the goal of weakening the Palestinian security plan," Erakat quoted Qorei as saying.
On Tuesday Israel's Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will meet on the eve of Bush's arrival. Erakat said they will begin discussing core issues of the decades-old conflict.
The Israeli official said the two sides failed to reach an agreement on a framework for negotiations on Monday, but that Qorei and Livni would join Olmert and Abbas for four-way talks on Tuesday.
The so-called final status issues that have always bedevilled the peace process are settlements, the future status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees, and the borders of a future Palestinian state.
Earlier the Peace Now anti-settlement group said that the government is seeking a court ban on the publication of a key report on settlements that reportedly contains embarrassing information on widespread building, often without required permits, in dozens of settlements.
