US pushing hard for border agreement
Herb Keinon , THE JERUSALEM POST May. 9, 2008
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Israel and the Palestinians need to "draw a map and get it done," according
to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, using language conveying a degree
of impatience a week before President George W. Bush is scheduled to visit
the region.

Rice, en route to Washington from Israel on Monday, was asked by a reporter
on her plane about Bush's April 2004 letter to then-prime minister Ariel
Sharon, which stated that "in light of new realties on the ground," a full
withdrawal to the 1949 Armistice Lines is "unrealistic."

Any final-status agreement "will only be achieved on the basis of mutually
agreed changes that reflect these realities," the letter continues.

Bush's letter was widely interpreted in Israel as a US acknowledgement that
Israel could keep the larger settlement blocs under any future agreement.

Rice said that "some of those realities have been recognized in every
agreement that never quite made it as well. So this is nothing new, that
those realities have been acknowledged."

But, she added, Bush said this would all be subject to "mutual agreement,
and I would remind that the president's letter talked about realities at
that time. And there are realities for both sides, which is why they need to
draw a map and get it done."

Despite a US-administration push for some kind of joint Israeli-Palestinian
declaration of progress during Bush's visit, perhaps an agreement on
borders, the chances of that happening in a meeting between Bush, Olmert and
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas were reduced considerably
Wednesday when the US announced that there was unlikely to be a trilateral
meeting during Bush's visit.

US National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley put to rest weeks of speculation
that the three leaders would meet, saying during a briefing in Washington
that "this did not seem the time for a big high-level, three-way event with
the president and the prime minister and President Abbas. It just doesn't
feel right as the best way to advance the negotiations. And so, at this
point, there [are] no plans for such a meeting."

Hadley said the US president, accompanied by first lady Laura Bush, would
arrive in Israel on Wednesday and meet separately with Olmert and President
Shimon Peres.

Bush, Hadley said, "will reaffirm his personal commitment to peace between
Israelis and Palestinians, and encourage continuing efforts for a two-state
solution, a democratic Israel and a democratic Palestine living side-by-side
in peace and security."

He also said the trip would "demonstrate the president's steadfast
opposition to extremists and their state sponsors, Iran and Syria, who are
expending enormous energy to thwart opportunities for security, freedom and
peace in the region."

Bush will also address the Knesset, tour Masada, meet with Quartet envoy
Tony Blair, host a reception in honor of the state's 60th anniversary, and
participate in a roundtable conversation with Israeli youth.

Bush is scheduled to fly to Saudi Arabia next Friday to mark the 75th
anniversary of formal US-Saudi relations, and meet with Saudi King Abdullah
at his private farm.

On Saturday, Bush will travel to Sharm e-Sheikh and meet with Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, followed by separate talks with Afghan President
Hamid Karzai. On Sunday, he is scheduled to meet with Jordan's King Abdullah
II, followed by separate bilateral meetings with PA Prime Minister Salaam
Fayad and Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora. He will also take part in
the World Economic Forum in Sharm before departing for the US on May 18.

In Jerusalem, Olmert is expected to update Bush on the situation with Syria,
including the status of recent feelers going back and forth between Damascus
and Jerusalem. Bush has not encouraged Israeli-Syrian talks, but his
spokesmen have said repeatedly that he had also not told Olmert not to
undertake them.
Olmert, in an interview with the French weekly Paris Match published on
Thursday, said he wanted to make peace with Syria, and that he was ready for
it and "perfectly informed about what that means."

At the same time, a Turkish initiative to hold a meeting between Israeli and
Syrian officials fell through after Damascus leaked to the press that Olmert
had agreed to relinquish all of the Golan Heights in exchange for peace, the
London-based pan-Arabic daily Al-Hayat reported. The paper said the meeting,
which was scheduled for "somewhere in Istanbul," was supposed to produce a
joint Israeli-Syrian-Turkish declaration.

According to another report, the chances that such a meeting would be held
in the near future were slim due to the US administration's stance on
Damascus. The Egyptian government weekly Al-Ahram quoted a Syrian source as
saying that talks between the two sides would only begin next year, after
the new US president entered office.

AP contributed to this report.