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Palestine Media Center - PMC [Official arm of the PA] 27.03.2005 Israelis Abbas Describes Rice Remarks as Positive, Qurei Seeks Clarifications. Trying to explain conflicting and contradictory US messages on what exactly President George W. Bush had promised the Israeli Prime Minister in a letter on April 14 last year, US Secretary of State Rice stepped in Sunday with statements that have created more confusion than clarification among both Palestinians and Israelis alike. In a Washington Post interview on Saturday, Condoleezza Rice denied that the United States had agreed to the expansion of illegal Jewish settlements on occupied Palestinian land but said the details of Israel's peace plan obligations to a "settlement freeze" were still being studied. Rice told the Post that the only commitment between US and Israel at this time is "that there has been a change in circumstances on the ground, large population centers have grown up and that will need to be taken into account in a final status agreement, but that that.agreement has to be negotiated. .That's it." Rice underlined that there was no US support for new building within settlements, but swiftly added that the meaning of "settlement freeze" required of Israel under the internationally-drafted "roadmap" peace plan of 2003 was still up for discussion. "There is no agreement that you can build some, it's one way or another," she said. "There is at this point a desire to understand that better, so that we can understand better what a settlement freeze might really mean," she said. In a follow-up phone call to the Post, Rice added that the US administration had had "discussions about steps toward a settlement freeze" but "we've never reached closure on that - it's complicated." A day earlier she told the Los Angeles Times that Israel's plan to add 3,500 settler units to the illegal Jewish settlement of "Maale Adumim" east of Jerusalem was "at odds with American policy." Palestinians Confused, Seek Clarification Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas described Rice's remarks as well as those of President George W. Bush on the illegal Jewish settlements as "positive, but we are waiting for them to be transformed into reality," he said Saturday. However, Palestinian Deputy Prime Minister Nabil Shaath said Sunday that the conflicting US statements on Israeli settlement policies are "confusing, because on the one hand they (the American officials) make positive statements but on the other they make statements that contradict with others on settlement blocs," he told Al-Ayyam daily. "Even their positive statements are not being implemented," Shaath added, stressing: "the settlement issue is very serious and it is a priority for the Palestinian Negotiations Committee as well as for the President's (Abbas) upcoming visit to the United States." Earlier, Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmad Qurei called on the United States to "clarify" its position on the settlements. In a statement, he pointed to the "impossibility of resuming negotiations on a permanent status" for the Palestinian territory if Washington accepts settlements "being put under Israeli sovereignty." "Israel needs to be dissuaded from committing illegal acts, and only the American administration can do that." President Abbas was invited by Rice for talks with Bush in April. Similar Confusion Among Israelis Rice's remarks similarly created confusion among the Israelis. Israel Government Radio began its morning news program Sunday with a report from Washington correspondent Yaron Dekel that once again seriously overstated the Bush letter. Dekel and program anchor Arieh Golan termed the letter - as well as an interview with Secretary of State Rice with Dekel recorded last night (in lieu of an official clarifying statement from Washington) - as a promise "that Israel would retain the major settlement blocs." Israel's Ambassador to Washington, Daniel Ayalon, was more careful, simply stating that there is no question that "Washington's commitment to the Bush letter is solid" without saying what the commitment was. However, former Israeli prime minister MP Ehud Barak (Labor) told Israel Radio in a live interview on Sunday morning that the Sharon government should tell "the Israeli people the truth," warning of the consequences "if we fool ourselves" since Washington actually opposes Israel retaining many of the settlement blocs. Barak explained that when Washington says that "existing major Israeli population centers" would be taken into account in final status talks that this in no way constitutes an American commitment to supporting the retention of the settlement blocs. There has been considerable confusion in Israel over the significance of the remark in the Bush letter that "In light of new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli populations centers, it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," IMRA online reported Sunday. The Sharon team interprets this as meaning that the US supports Israeli retention of the settlement blocs. But President Bush did not even use the term "settlement blocs" and instead used the term "major Israeli populations centers" - a term that also covers Ramat Eshkol, the French Hill, and other Jewish settlements in occupied Jerusalem that are on the negotiating table, IMRA added. In sharp contrast, Israel uses the term "settlements" in its communications to the United States, with the intention of excluding the Jerusalem Jewish colonies from the discussions. A more accurate interpretation of the Bush letter is that the United States considers the "major Israeli populations centers" to be legitimate "bargaining chips" and that it would be "unrealistic" to expect Israel not to be able to at least end up with Ramat Eshkol and French Hill - hence not "a full and complete return to the armistice lines of 1949," IMRA concluded. http://www.palestine-pmc.com/details.asp?cat=1&id=834 THE BUSH LETTER TO SHARON READS AS FOLLOWS:
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