U.S. announces invitations to Mideast session

WASHINGTON – The State Department announced Tuesday night that the United States has invited representatives of nearly 50 countries and institutions – including Saudi Arabia and Syria – to sit down with Israelis and Palestinians in Annapolis, Md., next Tuesday in a conference designed to kick-start substantive peace talks in the region.

The conference at the U.S. Naval Academy will be “a signal opportunity” to launch bilateral negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, Assistant Secretary C. David Welch told reporters, noting that it comes after “a long period in which there have been no such negotiations.”

President Bush announced plans for the event in July – though then he called it only a “meeting” – but the details and even the date were not announced until now so the administration could find the right combination of words and gestures to ensure high-level Arab participation.

The central goal is to entice Saudi Arabia to send its foreign minister to Annapolis, the first time such a senior Saudi official would have joined in a gathering with Israelis.

Bush weighed in with his own call to Saudi King Abdullah on Tuesday, though details were not provided by the White House. As a way to entice Saudi participation, diplomatic sources said, the formal invitation also drew on language from the 2003 “road map” plan for peace that mentions an Arab League initiative promoted by Abdullah.

That plan offers diplomatic relations with Israel if it withdraws to the 1967 borders and provides a “just solution” to the demands of Palestinian refugees. Though Israel Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has praised elements of the Arab League initiative, Israeli officials thus far have rejected mentioning it in a joint statement, being crafted with the Palestinians, that will be issued in Annapolis.

Arab officials had also pressed for an abundant gathering of nations, so that the tableaux would not just be Israel and its Arab neighbors. As a result, countries such as Brazil, Senegal and Norway also received invitations.

Welch stressed that broad international backing was important in order to give the revived peace talks momentum.

In the past, Saudi Arabia has sent only its ambassador to the United States to such international peace conferences. The Arab League will meet later this week to stake out a position on this gathering.

The invitation to Syria is especially significant because U.S.-Syrian relations have been badly strained amid accusations of Damascus’ meddling in Lebanon and that it allows insurgents to cross into Iraq. “If they come, we will not turn off the microphone for anyone,” Welch said.