Word: rice
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...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...
...Rice also warned Abbas that the Bush Administration took a dim view of the Palestinian leader's proposed trip to Damascus for a meeting with Hamas's exiled leader Khaled Mashaal in a bid to pacify the near-civil war that has erupted in recent months between militants of Fatah and Hamas. Rice made it clear to Abbas, said one Palestinian source, that "she's worried Hamas will impose its conditions on Abbas...
...Even before this meeting, relations between Abbas and Rice were frosty. A senior Palestine Liberation Organization official, who sat in on meetings between the two says: "She acts like a school headmistress, telling her student in a commanding tone to do this, or don't do that...
...view of Rice as being detached from the realities on the ground is underscored by a Palestinian professor who had previously dealt with Rice: "She thinks of big issues as small ones,? he says. "She believed that Israelis could wipe out Hizballah, and she believes - mistakenly - that Abbas can wipe out Hamas from Gaza and the West Bank...
...Moreover, Palestinian officials say, their dim view of Rice's efforts is shared by other Arabs. One official spoke of a rift between the Bush Administration and the Saudis that has become so intense that "Abbas was advised by a Saudi official not to believe what Rice says or follow her instructions." Indeed, despite U.S. efforts to persuade Arab regimes to shun and isolate Hamas, the Saudis invited Hamas Prime Minister Ismael Haniyeh to join the Haj pilgrimage to Mecca, giving him royal treatment all the way, including use of a private jet that flew him from Egypt to Saudi...