Arab states must not meddle in talks with Palestinians: Israel

Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni yesterday welcomed Arab states attending a peace meeting in the US but said they should not be involved in bilateral talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
"The Arab world is not supposed to define the terms of the negotiations or be involved in them," she told reporters on board Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's plane to Washington ahead of the Tuesday meeting in Annapolis, Maryland.
More than a dozen of Arab states, most of which do not have official ties with Israel, are planned to attend the peace meeting aimed at offering backing for the renewal of bilateral Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Livni welcomed the Arab participation at the summit, saying the meeting has "forced them off the fence" to actively support moderate Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
"There isn't a single Palestinian who can reach an agreement with Israel without the support of the Arab world," she added.
The meeting also allows to divide the moderate Arab and Muslim states from the radicals, led by Iran, Livni said.
"This week's image will be one dividing moderates and radicals. We will have a cristalisation of the two camps. There is one that will attend the Annapolis meeting and the other one that shouts -- Iran, Hamas and radicals," she said.
Iran on Sunday dismissed the meeting as having no purpose and slammed Arab states for taking part in it.
"The so-called conference... is of no benefit to the Palestinian people and has the aim of supporting the occupying Zionists," President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech, quoted by the official IRNA news agency.
The foreign minister also said that Israel dropped its initial objections to raise the issue of the occupied Golan Heights during the meeting, which Syria demanded as a condition for its participation.
"I believe that Syria has taken a decision to attend the meeting because we included the term 'comprehensive peace' in the agenda," she said.
"There will be a plenary session which I will also attend and where issues pertaining to the comprehensive peace in the Middle East can be discussed, and that includes everything. The Golan could also be raised there," she said.