GAZA (PIC)– Palestinian forces and leaders have expressed pessimism over US state secretary Condoleezza Rice’s visit to Palestine asserting that the visit aims at serving Israeli and American interests in the region.
PA public works minister Abdul Rahman Zaidan described the visit as “pessimistic” and that it aims at marring the Palestinian national unity affirming “Rice creates Palestinian internal crisis after every visit she makes to the region. She made three visits to Ramallah since Hamas led the PA government 10 months ago”.
In statement he made to the Quds Press news agency Zaidan charged “The USA wants to cover up for its military failure in Iraq at the expense of the Palestinian question and hence it (America) doesn’t want the Palestinian national harmony to prosper considering it dangerous to its interests in the region”.
For his part Hamas’ spokesman in Gaza Strip Fawzi Barhum pointed out that his Movement doesn’t expect any good out of Rice’s visit that according to him wants to revitalize the roadmap plan which is harmful to the Palestinian national interests and constants.
“She is just giving false promises to [PA chief Mahmoud] Abbas” Barhum was quoted as saying in an exclusive interview with the PIC adding that Hamas rejects the American classification of the Palestinian people as “moderates” and “extremists”.
Similar pessimistic remarks were uttered by political leaders of the Islamic Jihad and the PFLP and called on PA chief Mahmoud Abbas to adopt clear stand towards the American policies.
Pessimistic remarks over Rice’s visit to the region weren’t limited to Palestinian officials only as Israeli political analyst and writer Aloff Ben shrugged off the importance of the visit describing it as bringing no clear solution to the region’s problems in Iraq and Palestine.
“Rice will not be able to present solutions to the region’s problems despite the optimistic statements issued in Tel Aviv and the big support of [Israel’s premier] Ehud Olmert” said Ben in an article he wrote in the Hebrew daily Ha’aretz newspaper.
Furthermore the Israeli writer opined that Rice’s presence in the region was out of Washington’s desire to strengthen relationships with its allies to face the growing Iranian influence in the region.
He also expected that Olmert would attempt to strengthen his rapport with Abbas and would “secretly” extend more assistance to him to confront Hamas’ influence in the Palestinian street; but he didn’t reveal nature of that assistance.
Rice met with Israeli top officials in occupied Jerusalem prior to meeting Abbas in Ramallah Sunday that was followed by a visit to the Jordanian capital Amman and meeting with King Abdullah II.
She is expected in Saudi Arabia before flying to Kuwait and conferring with her counterparts in the six Gulf countries in addition to those of Jordan and Egypt.
