AFP: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipni Livni discussed the situation in Gaza and new sanctions against Iran in talks Thursday, an Israeli official said. WASHINGTON, (AFP) US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipni Livni discussed the situation in Gaza and new sanctions against Iran in talks Thursday, an Israeli official said.
Rice and Livni released no statement after their afternoon meeting at the State Department. But a spokesman for the Israeli embassy in Washington, David Siegel, said they were to discuss conditions in the Gaza strip and peace negotiations with the Palestinian Authority “which are very intensive.”
A draft UN resolution on Iran calling for the tightening of sanctions against the regime over its disputed nuclear program was also on the agenda, he said.
“We would like to see a third resolution pass and we would like to see further measures and sanctions” through the Security Council and outside the council, he said.
The draft resolution would form the basis of a third set of economic and trade sanctions against Iran for defying Security Council demands to stop uranium enrichment activities.
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said Rice expected to receive an update on peace negotiations from Livni, head of the Israeli delegation.
“I expect they will talk about Gaza too,” he said.
The unscheduled meeting was arranged at the last moment with Livni in Washington to attend memorial services for US lawmaker Tom Lantos, the Holocaust survivor and chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who died on Monday.
