U.S. to invite Saudi, Lebanon & Syria to M.E. peace summit

U.S. to invite Saudi, Lebanon & Syria to M.E. peace summit
Monday, 24 September, 2007 @ 6:35 AM


Beirut - The United States intends to invite Saudi Arabia, Lebanon ,
Syria and other Arab countries that do not have relations with Israel
to a Middle East peace conference that will be held in the United
States this fall, a senior State Department official said Sunday.


Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, noting that invitations have not
yet been issued, seemed to put some conditions on attendance later
Sunday. "Coming to this meeting also brings certain responsibilities,"
which includes renouncing violence and supporting the right of both
Israel and Palestine to exist, she said.

Rice spoke after a whirlwind of meetings here with top Arab officials
and members of an international peace coordinating body known as the
Quartet. The Quartet, which includes the United States, Russia, the
European Union and the United Nations, met with its representative for
building Palestinian institutions, former British prime minister Tony
Blair, and issued a statement saying that it expects the Middle East
conference to "affirm its support for the two-state solution based on
a rejection of violence."

The announcement of the invitation list raises the stakes for a
meeting that President Bush announced over the summer. The
administration had been coy about who might be invited, though
officials privately made clear they hoped the Saudis would attend
because Riyadh, unlike Jordan and Egypt, does not have diplomatic
relations with Israel.

The State Department official, speaking to reporters on the condition
of anonymity, said Rice will invite Israel and the Palestinian
Authority, their neighbors, members of the Quartet, an Arab League
negotiating committee and other "key players." The Arab League "follow-
up committee" includes Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, the Palestinian
Authority, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Algeria, Bahrain,
Yemen and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.

"The invitations are very important because for the time being the
Saudis are not coming, the Egyptians are reluctant, et cetera," French
Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview last week. "The
Arab League, Amr Moussa, told me they will not attend the conference
without a moratorium on settlements."

Both Saudi Arabia and Syria, along with Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the
United Arab Emirates, sent representatives to a dinner Rice and other
diplomats held Sunday night to discuss the conference further, another
U.S. official said.

After meeting with Rice earlier Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-
Faisal sidestepped a question about whether his government will attend
the conference. The invitations to Syria and Lebanon are significant
as well because Israel was reported to have attacked Syria earlier
this month and fought a war in Lebanon last summer -- and because the
United States has accused the Syrian government of fomenting violence
in the region. Rice noted to reporters that she has called for Syria
to change its behavior.

According to the State Department, Rice assured diplomats here that
the autumn conference will be "serious and substantive" and will
discuss the "core issues" of the dispute -- diplomatic code for topics
such as borders, the status of refugees and the division of Jerusalem.

But the contours and goals of the conference, tentatively scheduled
for mid-November, are still up in the air. Rice, who made a quick trip
to the Middle East last week, told reporters as she flew back to
Washington that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would issue a "joint statement" in
which they would "memorialize understandings."

Diplomats said there are still wide gaps between Olmert and Abbas
about how detailed the statement should be.

Abbas wants to be as specific as possible, but Olmert is under
pressure in Israel to remain vague. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud
Barak last week harshly criticized Olmert for his efforts, warning
against a "withdrawal from Israeli principles that have stood for 40
years, merely to gain favor in the eyes of an American president who
is leaving office in a year." He told the newspaper Haaretz that even
if Abbas wants to sign a peace agreement with Israel, the Palestinian
leader lacks the power to implement it.

Rice and her aides have taken a hands-off approach to the writing of
the document, largely leaving it to the parties themselves.

Kouchner, who has met twice with Abbas and Olmert and visited Rice in
Washington last week, said that the conference as currently envisioned
has limited goals. He said it would offer a "little paper" that would
have a "very light framework."

Still, he added that he sees the continuing conversation between
Olmert and Abbas as a "real opportunity," in part because both men are
politically weak and there are such low expectations for the
conference. Negotiations to create a Palestinian state "will take
years, it will take months at least, with no result," he said. "So
this is a very light, weak, magnificent possibility."

Lebanon's top Shiite cleric attacks summit

Lebanon's top Shiite Muslim cleric expressed fears Sunday that a US-
sponsored peace conference in the late autumn would serve instead as a
cover for renewed aggression by the United States and Israel.

Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah also charged that the
United States had given Israel the green light to destroy Hamas-
controlled Gaza by supporting its decision last week to designate the
strip a "hostile territory."

"We fear that the American peace conference that Bush has called for
in the fall would be a cover for a new American-Israeli aggression in
the region and would constitute the basis for another military
adventure," Fadlallah said in an announcement.

Fadlallah, the top religious authority for Lebanon's 1.2 million
Shiites, warned Arab countries against "directly or indirectly joining
this game."

Picture: US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shakes hands with
Palestinian Authority President Mahmud Abbas following a press
conference in Ramallah last week. Rice has urged Israelis and
Palestinians to hold serious talks on creating a Palestinian state,
insisting a looming peace summit be substantive.

Sources: Washington Post

.

Relevant Pages

  • U.S. May Boycott U.N. Racism Conference Over Document which U.S. officials say unfairly singles out
    ... U.S. May Boycott U.N. Racism Conference Over Document which U.S. ... officials say unfairly singles out Israel for censure and could ... United States and Israel walked out of that meeting, held in Durban, ...
    (soc.culture.china)
  • Words get corroded too.
    ... "Hopefully some concrete steps come out of the conference that we can ... countries boycotting the event out of concern that Islamic countries ... Australia, Canada, Israel and Italy already had said they would not ... the diplomatic interests of the United States in the Islamic republic. ...
    (rec.music.dylan)
  • Rice Lowers "Mideast Talks" Expectations
    ... Rice Lowers "Mideast Talks" Expectations ... opens critical round of Mideast shuttle diplomacy, warns Israel against ... presented at a US-hosted international conference next month. ... has left Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas controlling just the West ...
    (soc.culture.israel)
  • Re: Words get corroded too.
    ... United States and some of its major allies over concerns that it would ... be used as a platform for attacks against Israel. ... The boycott left Ahmadinejad, who has in the past cast doubt on the ... Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Store told the conference after ...
    (rec.music.dylan)
  • The Cultural Connection-Zionism and the United States
    ... The Cultural Connection-Zionism and the United States ... Israel was to be an entirely new country created in a savage, ... prism of Zionist propaganda and colonization in Palestine. ... are in no way flattering to Western culture or to Western ...
    (soc.culture.israel)