United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks to reporters on her arrival in Amman on Monday. - REUTERS
JERUSALEM (Reuters):
UNITED STATES Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice brokered a deal on Gaza border crossings in marathon talks with Israel and the Palestinians yesterday, scoring a rare breakthrough in Middle East diplomacy. Rice, who put her own reputation at stake by investing so personally in the negotiations, had postponed her departure to Asia for an APEC meeting, staying in Jerusalem an extra day until she secured an agreement on opening the Gaza-Egypt border.
Access to Gaza is key to strengthening the impoverished strip's economy, and giving a boost to chances for peacemaking following Israel's withdrawal from the coastal territory in September after 38 years of occupation.
GOOD STEP FORWARD
Bleary-eyed after an almost sleepless night of hard-nosed bargaining, Rice praised the deal as a "good step forward." It hands the Palestinians control of a border for the first time.
"This agreement is intended to give the Palestinian people the freedom to move, to trade, to live ordinary lives," she told a news conference in Jerusalem before flying out.
Rice said the Rafah crossing between Gaza and Egypt, the strip's gateway to the outside world, should open on November 25, with the presence of European Union security monitors.
Palestinians would also be able to start travelling in bus and truck convoys between Gaza and the occupied West Bank within months, and construction of a Gaza seaport would begin.
The main sticking point was Israel's insistence on monitoring passage of goods and people, saying it feared cross-border arms smuggling to militants. Palestinians said an Israeli presence at Rafah would impinge on their sovereignty.
A compromise was reached whereby Israeli and Palestinian security officers at an EU-run control room a few kilometres (miles) from Rafah will monitor remote-control cameras.
If the Israelis want someone stopped or detained, they must ask their Palestinian counterparts to do so. If the Palestinians refuse, an appeal can be made to the EU team of police experts while the person in question is held for up to six hours.
The agreement could give Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas a boost in January parliamentary elections in the face of a strong challenge from Hamas, a militant Islamic group sworn to Israel's destruction.
