USA: Arab negotiators discuss Annapolis peace conference

Negotiators from several Arab countries meet in Washington to coordinate a joint position ahead of a U.S.-sponsored conference to launch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. Arab negotiators gathered at the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington on Monday evening (November 26) for talks aimed at forging a common position ahead of the next day's Annapolis, Maryland, peace conference on the creation of a Palestinian state. The Annapolis conference is aimed at jump-starting negotiations for creating a Palestinian state. But no one expects a swift breakthrough between the two sides, led by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. More than 40 states are attending the conference, including Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Arab powers. "We want a tripartite committee, American, Palestinian and Israeli, that is led by America and with America in charge, to carry out investigations into the first stage of the roadmap," senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told Reuters Television after Monday night's meeting. "After this enormous gathering in Annapolis, there should be an international monitoring system in place for the talks. I'm not saying that the world should negotiate in our absence or take decisions without us, but there should an international monitoring system in place to monitor the development of the negotiations," added Erekat. Joining the talks are Syria, a front-line state formally at war with Israel, and Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal. Their presence is considered a diplomatic coup for the Bush administration. U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will shepherd the conference. The meeting includes a session on the Golan Heights, occupied by Israel since 1967 and which Damascus hopes to regain. "There is a signal towards the Syrian track and the Lebanese track but I have a strong suspicion that talks will be launched at the end of tomorrow's sessions between the Syrian and Israeli sides," said Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. Hoping to salvage a foreign policy legacy likely to be dominated by the unpopular Iraq war, Bush is hosting the most ambitious round of international Middle East diplomacy in seven years. Like the United States, many participants are driven by the desire to offset the growing influence of non-Arab Iran -- an opponent of peace with the Jewish state. Tehran said on Tuesday it had built a new long-range missile. The weapon matches the range of another Iranian missile that can hit Israel. Despite Bush's insistence on a renewed U.S. commitment and a call for stepped-up international support for the peace process, expectations were low for major strides in the three days of meetings that started at the White House on Monday. Bush, Olmert and Abbas all face serious problems at home. Abbas lost control of the Gaza Strip in June to Hamas Islamists, whose leader in the enclave denounced Annapolis as a "festival" to bolster the "Zionist enemy" and said any concessions made by Abbas would not be binding for Palestinians. Olmert is unpopular and faces opposition to concessions from members of his coalition. Some critics suggest he is using peace talks to fend off a critical public inquiry and graft probes. Bush, politically hobbled by the Iraq war, leaves office in January 2009. The campaign to succeed him is in full swing. At Annapolis, the two sides are also expected to recommit to a 2003 "road map" that calls for a freeze of Jewish settlement activity in the West Bank occupied by Israel since a 1967 war as well as a crackdown by Palestinians on their militants.

ITN Source | November 28, 2007

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