Rice: 'Freedom Deficit' Harming Mideast

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice speaks with reporters during a joint news conference with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeyer at the State Department, Friday, Dec. 8, 2006, in Washington. Rice said Friday a lack of democracy - she called it a "freedom deficit" - is the core problem in the Middle East. But Rice also said despite a divide between moderates and extremists in the area, she thinks the Bush administration "can begin to deliver" on its promise of a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) (Manuel Balce Ceneta - AP)

WASHINGTON -- Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday a lack of democracy _ a "freedom deficit" _ is the core problem in the Middle East.

But Rice also said despite a divide between moderates and extremists in the area, she thinks the Bush administration can begin to deliver on its promise of a Palestinian state living in peace alongside Israel.

"No American president has ever dared to say it as a matter of policy," Rice said of President Bush's declaration in 2002 that he would support creation of a Palestinian state.

At a joint news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Franz-Walter Steinmeier, Rice made it clear the administration would continue to focus on spreading demcoracy and steering clear of extremists while pursuing an Arab-Israeli settlement.

While Amr Moussa, the secretary-general of the Arab League, called on the United States on Thursday to resume the role of "honest broker" between Israel and the Palestinians, Steinmeier stressed peacemaking was a joint effort of the so-called Quartet _ the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia.

Having visited the region recently, the German foreign minister said Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert "seem to have an interest in taking further steps."

And Rice, similarly, said "the Israeli-Palestinian issue is one that has now, perhaps, an opportunity to move the process forward."

She said it was important to get it right in the troubled area.

"The Middle East has suffered for 60 years from a freedom deficit," she said. "It has suffered from the absence of legimitate channels for political expression."

On Thursday, Sean McCormack, the State Department spokesman, said Rice intends to devote a lot of time on the Middle East and would make a trip to the region early next year to try to promote Mideast peacemaking.

She plans to meet on Saturday with visiting Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, who told the Saban Center, a private group that promotes Mideast amity, that "a normal, functioning Palestinian state is not only in the Palestinians' interest but in Israel's."

However, Livni said in a dinner speech, "We have to prevent a future Palestinian state from being a terorrist state" and that Israel could not allow Palestinian refugees to return to the Jewish homeland.

Livni said Israel must strengthen the hand of moderates, such as Abbas, and that the struggle in the region is not between Israel and Arabs but between moderates and extremists.

McCormack said Thursday the absence of a Palestinian partner for Israel to deal with remains a roadblock to a solution. He referred to Hamas, the Palestinian militia with whom Israel and the United States refuse to negotiate.

On Friday, on a visit to Iran, Ismail Haniyeh, the Palestinian prime minister and Hamas leader in Gaza, vowed the Hamas-led Palestinian government will never recognize Israel and will fight for Jerusalem.