Word: saudi
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...Hamas' growing arsenal was the subject of discussions U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice held at in late March in Aswan, Egypt, with intelligence chiefs from Jordan, Saudi Arabia and Egypt, according to U.S. diplomats familiar with her agenda. Israel is considered to be the Hamas' main target, but if the Palestinian unity government breaks apart, as many expect, Hamas may also be steeling itself for an armed showdown with Fatah militants loyal to Abbas. "The flow of funds and arms [to Hamas] is not conducive to peace and stability," said a source close to the peace process...
...offer to Israel, but it hardly suggested the sort of "bold outreach" to the Jewish State for which U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had been lobbying. Indeed, the summit appeared to reveal a yawning gap between the outlooks of the U.S. and its key Arab ally, summit host Saudi Arabia...
...Rice seemed to be expressing the hope that Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, whom she praised as the author of the 2002 Arab initiative, would authorize direct Saudi-Israeli talks. When asked by a reporter whether it was time for the Saudis to meet the Israelis face-to-face, Rice replied, "I would hope that every state will search very deep to see what it can do at this crucial time to finally end this conflict...
...Saudi-U.S. differences are highlighted by the summit's endorsement of the Mecca Agreement under which Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas agreed to establish a national unity government to end Palestinian infighting. In contrast to the continued U.S. insistence that Hamas be boycotted, the Saudis believe that peace negotiations can only succeed if Hamas can be drawn into the process. The Islamist movement is, after all, the democratically elected ruling party in the Palestinian Authority. "The U.S. is a prisoner of contradictions of its own making," the Arab diplomats adds. "They shouted 'democracy, democracy, democracy,' and then ended...
...Saudi Arabia's increasingly public divergence from U.S. positions is a comparatively new development - until fairly recently, Abdullah appeared willing to support Bush as much as possible. But the message out of the Riyadh summit is that the Saudis, along with the other Arab states, have concluded that Washington's policies are neither wise, effective, or in long-term Arab interests, and they are signaling their intent to take greater control over their own destiny. In his summit speech, Abdullah called the U.S. military involvement in Iraq an "illegitimate foreign occupation," and demanded an end to the "unjust" American...