Bush opens first formal Mid-East talks in seven years

28/11/2007 - 13:57:02
President George Bush invited the Israeli and Palestinian leaders to the White House today to officially inaugurate the first formal, direct negotiations in seven years.

Mr Bush planned to meet separately with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and finally to get them together for a joint session declaring the talks formally under way.

“What has been remarkable about this process is that they are now ready to go,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said.

“It’s going to be hard, but you had support in that room that you had not had from Arab states in the past.”

Mr Bush, along with Ms Rice, had earlier salvaged a “joint understanding” between the Israelis and Palestinians, who had remained far apart on the details of the statement until the last minute at the opening of the conference in Annapolis.

However, with prodding from the American side, Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas told international backers and sceptical Arab neighbours they are ready for hard bargaining toward an independent Palestinian state in the 14 months Mr Bush has left in office.

“This is the beginning of the process, not the end of it,” Mr Bush said after reading from the just-completed text the statement that took weeks to negotiate.

“I pledge to devote my effort during my time as president to do all I can to help you achieve this ambitious goal,” Mr Bush told Mr Abbas and Mr Olmert as the three stood together in the US Naval Academy’s majestic Memorial Hall. “I give you my personal commitment to support your work with the resources and resolve of the American government.”

The two Middle East leaders were circumspect but optimistic.

“I had many good reasons not to come here,” Mr Olmert told diplomats, including those from Arab states that do not recognise Israel like Saudi Arabia and Syria. “Memory of failures in the near and distant past weighs heavy upon us.”

Mr Abbas, meanwhile, recited a familiar list of Palestinian demands, including calls for Israel to end the expansion of Jewish settlements on land that could be part of an eventual state called Palestine and to release some of the thousands of Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.

“Neither we nor you must beg for peace from the other,” Mr Abbas said. “It is a joint interest for us and you. Peace and freedom is a right for us, just as peace and security is a right for you and us.”

Mr Bush has kept his distance from Middle East peacemaking for most of his nearly seven years in office, arguing that conditions in Israel and the Palestinian territories were not right for a more energetic role. Arab allies, among others, have warned that the Palestinian plight underlies other conflicts and feeds grievances across the Middle East, and have urged the White House to do more.

Negotiating teams will hold their first session in just two weeks, on December 12, and Mr Olmert and Mr Abbas plan to continue one-on-one discussions they began earlier this year. In addition, many of the same nations and organisations will gather again on December 17 in Paris to raise money for the perpetually cash-strapped Palestinians.

To attract Arab backing, the Bush administration included a session in the conference devoted to “comprehensive” peace questions – a coded reference to other Arab disputes with Israel. Syria came to the conference intending to raise its claim to the strategic Golan Heights, seized by Israel in 1967, and Lebanon wanted to talk about its border dispute with Israel. Rice told reporters that Syria and Lebanon spoke up, but she gave no details.

But in a sign of the difficult road ahead, Mr Abbas’ speech was immediately rejected by Hamas, the militant Palestinian faction that stormed to power in the Gaza Strip in June, a month before Mr Bush announced plans for the peace conference.

Meanwhile isolated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who refused to attend the conference said Israel was doomed to “collapse” and will not survive.

“It is impossible that the Zionist regime will survive. Collapse is in the nature of this regime because it has been created on aggression, lying, oppression and crime,” he said.

Iran has condemned the Annapolis gathering , saying it will discredit Arab countries who participated. Syria took part in the gathering, a step Iran said surprised it in a rare show of discontent with its close ally.