News Analysis: Peace hope high on Annapolis meeting, little result expected

Source: Xinhua | 11-26-2007 07:54

WASHINGTON, Nov. 25 (Xinhua) -- The latest U.S.-sponsored Middle East Conference, the first in seven years and designed to promote peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis, will be open in Annapolis, Maryland on Tuesday. Peace hope is high and the success of the meeting hinges on the participants' cooperation, but what seems discouraging is that little result might be achieved.

Unbalanced response

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice once claimed to have seen an opportunity in the rise of a moderate Palestinian government in the West Bank and a common interest of Israel and many Arab states in constraining extremism in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Ever since U.S. President George W. Bush initiated a proposal to hold an international meeting on Mideast issues in July, Rice has been engaged in Mideast peacemaking. The year of 2007 so far has witnessed the No. 1 U.S. diplomat shuttling in the Middle East region for at least eight times, hopefully to revive the stalled peace process there.

However, the Bush administration's effort to improve worsening Middle East situation is regarded by many, especially Arabs too late. They said that the White House is driven, above all, by the need to improved a presidential image badly tarnished by the U.S.-led Iraq war.

In comparison with the first Middle East peace conference held in Madrid, Spain in 1991, the latest U.S. initiative to hold Annapolis meeting has been difficult from the very beginning to get applause from the Arab countries because some of the Arabs' main requirements for a successful conference have not been met.

Arab countries have been demanding for a moratorium on Jewish settlement activities in occupied Palestinian territory and the removal of roadblocks as a clear sign that Israel is serious about negotiations. But the Jewish state has so far shown little inclination to do this.

Arabs offer cooperation

Despite strong disagreement with U.S. attitude toward Israel, Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo agreed Friday to attend the U.S.-brokered conference in a bid to join American effort to revive the long-stalled Middle East peace process.

The Cairo meeting, sponsored by the Arab League follow-up committee of the Arab Peace Initiative, and attended by Egypt, Jordan, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Qatar, Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan and the Palestinian Authority, was held to reach a unified stance of the Arab world for the U.S.-brokered conference.

Arab countries attending the Cairo meeting "have accepted the invitation to attend the Annapolis conference on a ministerial level," according to a final statement from the ministers.

"We are going (to attend the meeting) with seriousness and we work on the same seriousness and credibility," said Saudi Arabian Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal , whose participation in the meeting was believed by Washington an important demonstration of Arab support for the U.S. peace initiative.

Another good news is that Syria announced on Sunday to send Deputy Foreign Minister Faysal Mekdad to participate in Annapolis meeting. The last minute decision by Damascus has eased more or less concerned parties' grave concern when Syria has been demanding the issue of the Golan Heights be included on the agenda of the upcoming peace conference.

Difficulties remain

The Annapolis meeting is the first to address the Israeli-Palestinian conflict when the Middle East peace process has been stalled for more than six years. It is also believed by many the last chance for President Bush to try to solve thorny issues of the two sides before he leaves white house in January 2009.

The Bush administration has vowed time and again to help solve conflicts between Israel and the Arab world, Yet the two-state solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict proposed by Bush in 2003 has actually become unprecedentedly difficult, given Israel's policies on the ground.

The expansion of Jewish settlements, roads for settlers, fences and military zones in the West Bank has rendered 40 percent of the territory off-limits to Palestinians and leaves the rest split into enclaves, according to a recent U.N. map.

In its editorial on Annapolis meeting, the New York Times urged the White House to organize "serious, detailed and sustained talks on the core issues: the borders of a Palestinian state, the fate of refugees, the future of Jerusalem and a guarantee for Israel's legitimate security concerns.

When Bush addresses the peace conference, "He must demonstrate that he has a clear post-Annapolis strategy and the political will-- not yet evident -- to keep with this throughout his last 14 months in office."

"A conference that withers away once the TV cameras leave Annapolis could be worse than no conference at all," the leading U.S. newspaper concluded.

Editor:Zhang Pengfei