Post by Steve Gardner on Nov 25, 2007 19:58:13 GMT
From AFP
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush will launch what is touted as the first substantive push for Israeli-Palestinian peace in seven years when he opens an international conference near here Tuesday.
Topping the guest list for the meeting in Annapolis, Maryland are Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas who seek to start negotiations for a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.
Abbas arrived in the United States late Saturday, Olmert was expected to fly in on Sunday.
By having both sides delve straight into the thorniest issues like the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, the US administration says it aims to clinch a final deal before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
"Failure is not an option," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is fond of saying.
And Washington pushed for a massive conference in order to throw the broadest international support possible behind the "courageous efforts" of Olmert and Abbas.
At times using the phone to reassure skeptical Arab leaders, Bush finally on Friday persuaded at least 14 Arab states and possibly Syria to send cabinet ministers to a gathering of nearly 50 countries and organizations.
In a coup for US diplomacy, a reluctant Saudi Arabia will sit at the same table with the Jewish state for the first time to discuss Middle East peacemaking.
Saudi Arabia has never recognized Israel and no senior figure from it has held public talks with Israeli officials except for meetings at the United Nations and a 1996 international summit on fighting terrorism.
Saudi Arabia is the architect of an Arab peace initiative offering formal Arab diplomatic ties with Israel in return for an Israeli pullout from all land ocucpied in the 1967 war.
Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, are alone in the 22-member Arab League to have full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
A few Arab states have had or still have limited ties with Israel.
Syria has hinged the participation of its foreign minister on having the occupied Golan Heights explicitly put on the Annapolis agenda, a demand it claims Washington has now met.
US officials have tried to keep the focus on the Palestinian-Israeli track, but have publicly promised not to discourage Syria or Lebanon from raising their conflicts with Israel as they seek broad Arab participation.
The date for the conference was only confirmed last Tuesday, even though it had been in the works since Bush first announced plans for it in July.
In launching a new push for peace, the United States wants moderate Arab states involved, arguing that all sides share a concern about Iran's rising influence following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Iran backs radical groups throughout the Middle East, including the radical Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which seized power from Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip in June.
Hamas has denounced the conference and threatened new attacks against Israel.
Bush will have to dispel Arab doubts he will drop his pro-Israel stance enough to wring meaningful concessions from the Jewish state. In the runup to Annapolis, Israel freed Palestinian prisoners and stopped new settlements.
Complaining they ignored their pleas when he first became president, the Arabs also wonder how much Bush will invest in the peace process.
Bush has signaled a deeper personal commitment so far by speaking to Arab leaders before the meeting as well as in planning to deliver the opening speech and engage in hands-on diplomacy.
Before, during and after the conference, Bush plans to meet with Olmert and Abbas.
To demonstrate her commitment to the process, Rice struck a rare personal note by saying her childhood as an African-American in segregated Alabama made her sensitive to the plight of both the Palestinians and Israelis.
"This is going to be a serious and substantive conference that will advance the cause of the establishment of a Palestinian state," Rice said during a trip to the West Bank in October, one of eight visits to the region this year.
But the Israel and the Palestinians failed to reach agreement on a joint document to be presented at Annapolis.
Major differences exist between the Israelis and Palestinians over core issues like the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
And chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei said late Saturday it was unlikely the two sides would be able to come up with such a document ahead of the Annapolis meeting.
"We don't have time to achieve that," Qorei told reporters. "We'll see if we can bridge that gap on Sunday, but it not, we'll go directly to the conference."
The peace process has been frozen since former US president Bill Clinton tried to broker a final settlement near the end of his presidency in 2000.
WASHINGTON (AFP) — US President George W. Bush will launch what is touted as the first substantive push for Israeli-Palestinian peace in seven years when he opens an international conference near here Tuesday.
Topping the guest list for the meeting in Annapolis, Maryland are Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas who seek to start negotiations for a Palestinian state living in peace with Israel.
Abbas arrived in the United States late Saturday, Olmert was expected to fly in on Sunday.
By having both sides delve straight into the thorniest issues like the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, the US administration says it aims to clinch a final deal before Bush leaves office in January 2009.
"Failure is not an option," US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is fond of saying.
And Washington pushed for a massive conference in order to throw the broadest international support possible behind the "courageous efforts" of Olmert and Abbas.
At times using the phone to reassure skeptical Arab leaders, Bush finally on Friday persuaded at least 14 Arab states and possibly Syria to send cabinet ministers to a gathering of nearly 50 countries and organizations.
In a coup for US diplomacy, a reluctant Saudi Arabia will sit at the same table with the Jewish state for the first time to discuss Middle East peacemaking.
Saudi Arabia has never recognized Israel and no senior figure from it has held public talks with Israeli officials except for meetings at the United Nations and a 1996 international summit on fighting terrorism.
Saudi Arabia is the architect of an Arab peace initiative offering formal Arab diplomatic ties with Israel in return for an Israeli pullout from all land ocucpied in the 1967 war.
Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, are alone in the 22-member Arab League to have full diplomatic ties with the Jewish state.
A few Arab states have had or still have limited ties with Israel.
Syria has hinged the participation of its foreign minister on having the occupied Golan Heights explicitly put on the Annapolis agenda, a demand it claims Washington has now met.
US officials have tried to keep the focus on the Palestinian-Israeli track, but have publicly promised not to discourage Syria or Lebanon from raising their conflicts with Israel as they seek broad Arab participation.
The date for the conference was only confirmed last Tuesday, even though it had been in the works since Bush first announced plans for it in July.
In launching a new push for peace, the United States wants moderate Arab states involved, arguing that all sides share a concern about Iran's rising influence following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Iran backs radical groups throughout the Middle East, including the radical Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which seized power from Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip in June.
Hamas has denounced the conference and threatened new attacks against Israel.
Bush will have to dispel Arab doubts he will drop his pro-Israel stance enough to wring meaningful concessions from the Jewish state. In the runup to Annapolis, Israel freed Palestinian prisoners and stopped new settlements.
Complaining they ignored their pleas when he first became president, the Arabs also wonder how much Bush will invest in the peace process.
Bush has signaled a deeper personal commitment so far by speaking to Arab leaders before the meeting as well as in planning to deliver the opening speech and engage in hands-on diplomacy.
Before, during and after the conference, Bush plans to meet with Olmert and Abbas.
To demonstrate her commitment to the process, Rice struck a rare personal note by saying her childhood as an African-American in segregated Alabama made her sensitive to the plight of both the Palestinians and Israelis.
"This is going to be a serious and substantive conference that will advance the cause of the establishment of a Palestinian state," Rice said during a trip to the West Bank in October, one of eight visits to the region this year.
But the Israel and the Palestinians failed to reach agreement on a joint document to be presented at Annapolis.
Major differences exist between the Israelis and Palestinians over core issues like the status of Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
And chief Palestinian negotiator Ahmed Qorei said late Saturday it was unlikely the two sides would be able to come up with such a document ahead of the Annapolis meeting.
"We don't have time to achieve that," Qorei told reporters. "We'll see if we can bridge that gap on Sunday, but it not, we'll go directly to the conference."
The peace process has been frozen since former US president Bill Clinton tried to broker a final settlement near the end of his presidency in 2000.
