US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice spoke to Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas and two Israeli ministers to find ways to keep open essential supply routes to the Palestinian territories, a spokesman said.
Israel has virtually sealed off its frontier with the Palestinian territories, and the UN agency for Palestinian refugees has warned that the Gaza Strip faces a humanitarian disaster if more supplies are not delivered to the impoverished territory, where stocks of flour, wheat and sugar are low.
State Department deputy spokesman Adam Ereli said Rice had spoken on Friday with Abbas and Israel's Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz about the mounting Palestinian crisis.
‘The major purpose of those conversations was to talk to all three about how we can work together to ensure that the border remains open and that the Palestinian people continue to get the kind of trade and humanitarian supplies across the border that we've been able to assure to date,’ the spokesman said.
Ereli said the United States was awaiting the results of the Israeli election next Tuesday before deciding its next moves in the Middle East peace process. In parallel, the Hamas government in the Palestinian territories is expected to get a vote of approval on Saturday.
Asked whether Washington would press Israel to return to talks with Palestinians, Ereli said: ‘It depends on the political landscape.
‘You have to play with the hand you're dealt in this case, so let's see what the results of the Israeli elections are. Let's see what the political developments of the Palestinian Authority are.’
But he stressed that the United States was still pushing for ‘a negotiated settlement leading to the creation of a viable Palestinian state.’
Ereli commented: ‘Obviously our ability to promote that is going to be influenced by the political realities on the ground.’
The United States considers Hamas a ‘terrorist’ organisation and has suspended aid to the Palestinian authority. The spokesman said a review of aid to the Palestinian territories was still going on.
‘We continue our internal process of looking at what we're giving to the Palestinians now, what their humanitarian needs in the future are going to be and how we can reconcile our commitment to those needs as well as our concern for not supporting ‘terrorism’ or ‘terrorist’ organizations.’