U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is set to hold a three-way meeting next week with the chief Israeli and Palestinian negotiators, a senior Palestinian official said on Monday. Rice's visit to Jerusalem for the talks is part of an effort to advance U.S.-led peace talks in the region aimed at forming a unified Palestinian state that will co-exist peacefully with Israel before the end of the year. Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the three-way meeting between Rice and the chief negotiators—Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and former Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qurie—would take place on June 16, 2008. The talks aim to “review the negotiations in all its aspects,” Erekat said. Qurie said on Saturday that the Palestinians were still conducting talks with their Israeli counterparts despite “wide gaps” on certain positions. The two sides agreed in their last meeting to begin drafting a position paper in an attempt to narrow those gaps, he said.
