CAIRO: Arab ministers attending a ministerial meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo Friday declared their agreement to attend the Annapolis Middle East peace conference Nov. 27.
“The Arab peace follow-up group has decided to accept the invitation to attend the Annapolis Middle East peace conference at a ministerial level to discuss the peace process, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal told reporters after the meeting.
Speculation had been rife over whether Saudi Arabia would attend the conference and in what capacity, but Al-Faisal confirmed that his country would be attending at the ministerial level.
“Saudi Arabia will participate. Foreign Minster Saud Al-Faisal and I will head to the conference, Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa told reporters.
The Arab decision will lend greater credence to the US-sponsored conference, which aims to bring Palestinians and Israelis together to knock up a memorandum which would lead to a peace agreement within a year.
The Arab foreign ministers had gathered on Friday to decide whether they would participate in the conference, and at what level. Previously, Egypt and Jordan had already indicated that they had accepted their invitations and their delegations would be headed by their respective foreign ministers.
The level of Arab participation in the conference was one of the elements used to gauge the validity of the conference and its ability to achieve its aims. One aspect of the conference’s success, international relations expert from Al Ahram Center for Political and Strategic Studies Emad Gad previously told Daily News Egypt, “depend(s) on the level of Arab participation and whether it will be at an ambassadorial level or ministerial one. If it is the ambassadors then the conference will have failed but if it involves the Arab foreign ministers then it will be a success.
The Palestinians want the conference document to include clear language that would indicate the direction of the final status talks, or core issues. These are the right of return for Palestinian refugees exiled since 1948, the borders of a future Palestinian state and the fate of Jerusalem whom both sides desire as a capital.
On the other hand, Israel prefers the language referring to the core issues to be more vague and ambiguous.
