Egypt Backs Mideast Meeting

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The New York Sun

CAIRO — Secretary of State Rice today won tempered Egyptian support in her quest to nudge Israelis and Palestinian Arabs closer together ahead of a Mideast peace conference to be held in November or December.

Egypt, a key mediator between the Arabs and Israel, and other key Arab allies have expressed skepticism over the conference in past weeks, fearing it would be merely symbolic without making real progress in the Israeli-Palestinian Arab peace process. A day earlier, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit of Egypt spoke of postponing it.

But Mr. Aboul Gheit said his meeting with Ms. Rice today “gives us a lot of trust and confidence” about American intentions for the conference, though he cautioned that preparations to hammer out the agenda could take more time.

Ms. Rice “has helped us to understand the American objective. She shed a great deal of light on the current American efforts,” he told reporters.

“We feel encouraged regarding what we heard from Secretary Rice and promised her that we would help and we would help the parties as well in order to achieve the objective which is launching the permanent status negotiations that would lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state on both the Palestinian territories,” he said.

Ms. Rice and Mr. Aboul Gheit said the timing of the conference depended on progress in Israeli-Palestinian Arab talks on hammering out an agreement to be sealed at the gathering, expected to be in Annapolis, Md. The Palestinian Arabs want the document to address core issues of the peace negotiations, while Prime Minister Olmert of Israel wants a vaguer statement.

“We will continue to work and help them to create this document and we will then be in a position I think fairly soon to talk about when this meeting ought to take place,” Ms. Rice said.

Ms. Rice was heading later in the day back to Jerusalem for further talks with Mr. Olmert.

Still, Mr. Aboul Gheit said the conference should be put off if a strong deal is not reached.

“We have to go into the meeting ready to launch negotiations,” he said. “It can be done if we have enough determination on the part of the (Bush) administration.”

Palestinian Arab and Israeli negotiating teams met for a second time yesterday to try to thrash out details of the joint document. “So far, no advances have been made, and we are not deluding ourselves,” a Palestinian Arab negotiator, Yasser Abed Rabbo, said today.

Last week, an Arab League chief, Amr Moussa — whom Ms. Rice was also meeting today — derided the conference, saying the Americans were just hoping for a photo opportunity between Saudi and Israeli officials.

But Mr. Aboul Gheit today suggested Egypt would work with the Palestinian Arabs and Israelis to help solidify the agenda. “All of us are required to help in drafting the parameters, the principles, the understandings, whatever will launch the negotiations on a sound basis,” he said.


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