Word: palestinians
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After meeting with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas made no effort to hide his grim expression from his staff. From the Palestinian perspective, the talks hadn't gone well. Abbas had complained to Rice that an earlier chat and a bear hug with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, at the Secretary of State's behest, had only landed him in trouble with his fellow Palestinians. According to a presidential aide, he told Rice that "Olmert embarrassed me by not implementing a single Israeli promise...
...Olmert had vowed to release $100 million in Palestinian funds frozen by Israel after Hamas became the government last March. Olmert also promised to remove some of the more than 400 roadblocks inside the Palestinian territories. Israel has so far failed to deliver on either promise, according to Palestinian officials who spoke on condition of anonymity...
...After Rice and her phalanx of bodyguards and advisers left Abbas's office in Ramallah, one Palestinian source close to the Palestinian president reported gloomily that "She didn't bring anything new." He added: "The American 'Road Map' is a dead body, and implementing the plan will enable Israelis to swallow more of the West Bank." The reasoning, say Abbas supporters, is that Abbas cannot comply with Rice's demands that he disarm Hamas militants, and Abbas's failure to do this will embolden the Israelis to erect more Jewish settlements inside the Palestinian territories. "What she's asking - this...
...Although many experts believe the odds are overwhelmingly against Rice's efforts to broker a peace agreement and establish an independent Paelstine, given the weakened political positions of both Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud, Abbas, Rice insisted that she was "actually in a better strategic position certainly than... in '01, but maybe ... ever...
...Rice said that her journey was meant to listen to regional leaders and get to the question at the heart of the matter: "Can you really start to move in a way that gives you a chance to establish a Palestinian state?" Rice says she hopes to capitalize on the political unpheaval in the Palestinian territories and signs that Hamas' popularity is fading. "In some ways, the pressure on Hamas seems to be coming from inside the territories where the inability to govern because of the international embargo, which by the way when we started down this road people said...