Cheney: U.S. won't pressure Israel on security

By Tabassum Zakaria

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Vice President Dick Cheney, starting a visit on Saturday to try to push forward Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, said Washington would never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security.

Palestinians accuse Israel of undermining the U.S.-sponsored peace talks by expanding Jewish settlements, refusing to remove West Bank roadblocks and mounting offensives against militants in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip who fire cross-border rockets into the Jewish state.

"America's commitment to Israel's security is enduring and unshakable, as is Israel's right to protect itself always against terrorism, rocket attacks and other attacks from forces dedicated to Israel's destruction," Cheney told a joint news conference with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.

"The United States will never pressure Israel to take steps that threaten its security."

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum called Cheney's comments "inciteful and completely biased in favours of the Israeli occupation".

He said it "confirms the United States is a partner to Israel in its war against our people and against the Gaza Strip".

Olmert said his talks with Cheney would include concerns about Iran and Syria, and that "we are anxious to carry on the peace negotiations with the Palestinians".

Cheney said the U.S. role was not to "dictate the outcome" of the peace talks, launched at a conference in Annapolis, Maryland, in November with the goal of reaching a statehood agreement before U.S. President George W. Bush leaves office in January.

PEACE PLAN

"Reaching the necessary agreement will require tough decisions and painful concessions by both sides but America is committed to moving the process forward," Cheney said.

"We want to see a resolution to the conflict, an end to the terrorism that has caused so much grief to Israelis, and a new beginning for the Palestinian people."

Cheney will visit the occupied West Bank over the weekend and meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as well as Prime Minister Salam Fayyad before leaving for Turkey, his last stop on a nine-day visit to the Middle East region.

Israel tightened its economic and military cordon around the Gaza Strip after Hamas Islamists routed Abbas's more secular Fatah forces and seized control of the coastal territory in June.

Bush made his first presidential visit to Israel and the West Bank in January and said he was optimistic a peace deal could be reached before he left office. He is expected to make another trip soon.

The peace talks have shown little sign of progress and have been slowed by increasingly heated disputes over Jewish settlement building near Jerusalem and an Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip that killed more than 120 Palestinians.  Continued...