08-06-2007
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Administrator
The cake is a lie.
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Member Since: Apr 2004
Location: a lake in Texas
Posts: 7,310
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Rice Sets Stage for Mideast Peace Conference
NPR : Rice Sets Stage for Mideast Peace Conference
Quote:
Saudi leaders said they would seriously consider attending a Mideast peace conference later this year.
The announcement came after Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice began laying the foundation for the conference, proposed by President Bush last month, in meetings in both Israel and Saudi Arabia on Wednesday.
The proposed gathering is intended to revive the peace process and would include Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states viewed as moderate by the United States.
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Israeli, Palestinian leaders meet
Quote:
JERICHO, West Bank - In their first meeting on Palestinian soil, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday he hopes to launch negotiations "soon" on establishing a Palestinian state, his clearest promise yet to tackle a final peace deal.
The trappings of the three-hour session were perhaps as important as the content.
Olmert became the first Israeli leader to visit a Palestinian town after seven years of bloody fighting, and Israeli and Palestinian security forces worked together to protect him, blocking all access to the five-star hotel in the biblical oasis of Jericho where the meeting took place.
Abbas, in turn, gained some stature by hosting Olmert, at least symbolically leveling the uneven relationship of occupier and occupied.
Yet despite the good will, the two sides have very different ideas about what should happen next.
The Palestinians said that after years of delay, it's now time to start talking about the terms of Palestinian statehood, including final borders, removal of Israeli settlements and how to divide Jerusalem.
Israel wants to move ahead more slowly, in part because previous talks in 2000 collapsed over the so-called core issues and because Olmert may not be strong enough politically to make far-reaching concessions.
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Are we hopeful or is it too soon to be? The US will host a Mideast Peace Conference later this year. Saudi leaders said they might be there. When you think of the Mideast conflicts, what comes to mind first? Who should be in attendance at the Mideast Peace Conference and what should be on the agenda? "Arab states viewed as moderate by the US"...would that include Saudi Arabia?
Last edited by Crystal; 08-06-2007 at 09:32 PM.
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