Bush to host key Mideast peace confce Nov 27
US President George W Bush will host a key conference on November 27 aiming to revive the Middle East peace process and pave the way towards a separate Palestinian state, US officials said.
Bush, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will open the conference involving more than 40 countries from around the world next week in Annapolis, Maryland, State Department officials said.
"We feel this is a really important moment," US Middle East envoy David Welch said Tuesday. "There is a common understanding that this is the moment in which they can change the picture and get serious negotiations started."
The peace process has been frozen for seven years since former US president Bill Clinton tried to broker a final settlement near the end of his presidency in 2000.
Years of violence followed the collapse of the Clinton-led negotiations, but Welch said there was now "critical mass" to revive the peace process.
In launching a new push for Palestinian-Israeli peace, the United States is hoping to enlist the support of moderate Arab states that are also concerned about the rising power of Iran following the 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq.
Iran backs radical groups throughout the Middle East, including the Palestinian Islamist movement Hamas, which seized power from Abbas's secular Fatah faction in the Gaza Strip in June.
Bush announced plans for the Annapolis conference the following month.
On the sidelines of the conference, Bush will host bilateral talks on Monday and Wednesday at the White House with both the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, said Gordon Johndroe, a White House spokesman.
And on Monday night, Bush will give a speech to heads of delegations during a dinner hosted by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the State Department in Washington, he added.
Washington issued invitations on Tuesday to around 100 delegates from the Middle East, as well as Europe and Asia, including Japan, Malaysia and Indonesia.
Saudi Arabia, a key US ally that sponsored a 2002 Arab peace initiative now attracting Israeli attention, has also been invited, but no official replies to the invitations have yet been received, the State Department said.
In his letter of invitation to Abbas, Bush made clear that the Annapolis meeting was intended to pave the way for comprehensive negotiations between the two sides, a senior Palestinian official said.
"This conference will signal broad international support for your courageous efforts and will be a launching point for negotiations leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace, in accordance with the roadmap," the official quoted Bush as saying.
The last was a reference to an internationally drafted peace blueprint that has made next to no progress since its launch in 2003.
Comments