Jordan Times
Sunday, November 25, 2007
King, Olmert discuss Annapolis preparations
Agencies
His Majesty King Abdullah on Saturday said that this week's US-hosted Middle East peace meeting should help create a Palestinian state, a Royal Court statement said.
In a phone call, the King told Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that the Annapolis meeting provides a chance to launch comprehensive and clear peace negotiations to tackle all aspects of the Arab-Israeli conflict and lead to an independent Palestinian state.
The conference, aimed at reviving stalled Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, formally kicks off on Tuesday with US President George W. Bush, Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
The King said the opportunity should be seized to build trust between the Palestinians and Israel during the coming stage to help achieve a just peace in the Middle East.
The statement added that the King and Olmert discussed preparations for the meeting.
The King is due to hold talks with Saudi King Abdullah in Riyadh today, another Royal Court statement said.
Meanwhile, Washington welcomed the decision by Arab states to send their top diplomats to the meeting, along with Jordan and Egypt which have peace treaties with Israel.
The decision was taken in a foreign ministers’ meeting at the Cairo-based Arab League on Friday.
Washington has also proposed that Arab states attending the Middle East peace conference hold a follow-up meeting in Moscow next year, an Arab diplomat told Agence France-Presse on Saturday.
"The arrangements proposed by the United States to Arab countries include holding a similar conference in Moscow in January that would discuss the Syrian and Lebanese tracks of the peace process, in addition to the Palestinian track," the diplomat told AFP, requesting anonymity.
The Riyadh-based diplomat did not elaborate on the proposal, but it is apparently designed to reassure Arab countries that Russia will have a major role in the Middle East peace process.
Russia is among more than 40 countries invited to attend the meeting, and along with the United States is a member of the Middle East Quartet, which also comprises the United Nations and European Union.
According to the Arab diplomat, the United States has also suggested that the Annapolis conference establish a follow-up committee that would monitor future negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
The committee would draw its membership from the Quartet and an Arab contact group charged with promoting a peace plan to normalise ties with Israel in return for Israeli pullout from all occupied Arab lands.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal said that after the foreign ministers meeting in Cairo he had been "reluctant" to join the conference but agreed to go so as not to break Arab consensus.
The ministers sent an urgent letter to the United States asking it to "explicitly" include on the agenda the issue of the Golan Heights, which Israel seized from Syria in 1967.
The US State Department said all parties to the meeting could raise their "national interests" without actually confirming whether the occupied Golan Heights would officially be on the agenda.
According to the diplomat, the United States has verbally agreed to include in the agenda both the Golan and the Shebaa Farms, occupied by Israel and claimed by Lebanon. But Arab states have asked for the promise to be put in writing.
He said a letter from Bush to Olmert and Abbas in which the US president reaffirms the need for the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel will be distributed to the conferees in Annapolis.
The document, which is perceived as a "letter of guarantees", states that the peace process must be based on UN resolutions, the "roadmap" drawn up by the Quartet, and the Arab Peace Initiative.
Another follow-up step will be the donors conference for the Palestinians which will be hosted by France, said the diplomat, adding that the conference is expected to be held on December 17.
The diplomat said that Saudi Arabia, which has no relations with Israel, has told the United States that it does not want the Annapolis conference to lead to meetings with the Israelis.
"The Saudis told Washington that they do not want to meet anyone from the Israeli delegation, either by chance or by prior arrangement. Hence it was decided that... delegations would enter into the meeting room from different doors," he said.
He said many Arab countries are not optimistic that the conference will yield breakthroughs on the Israeli-Palestinian track, "but they are going in order to underline their desire to take part in any attempts to achieve peace".