Mideast leaders meeting in Maryland

ANNAPOLIS, Maryland: After months of frantic diplomacy, high officials from more than 40 nations converged on this historic state capital Tuesday for what President George W. Bush hopes will be the start of the first Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in seven years.

Buffeted by skepticism over prospects that the Annapolis conference can set the stage for the creation of a Palestinian state by the end of Bush's second term in 2009, his administration has played down expectations for breakthroughs but insists that the exercise is not futile.

Expressing optimism, Bush saw the two main players, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel and the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, separately at the White House on Monday to nudge them closer to agreement on the conference centerpiece, a joint negotiating document on new talks.

Joining the talks are officials from Syria, which is formally at war with Israel, and the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal. Their presence is considered a diplomatic coup for the Bush administration. The U.S. secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, will shepherd the conference.

The meeting includes a session on the Golan Heights, which has been occupied by Israel since military victory in 1967 and which Syria hopes to regain. "We participate with the understanding that the Golan will be discussed," said a Syrian diplomat, Ahmad Salkini.

Saudi Arabia said it agreed to attend after receiving assurances that the Bush administration would remain energetic after the talks begin. But asked whether he would shake hands with Olmert, Saud gave a curt no.

"We are here for the serious business of making peace," he said. "It is not a sporting contest where you shake hands and let the best man win."
Mideast leaders meeting in Maryland - International Herald Tribune

If they can't even shake hands..........enough said.

Have a good one!:s4: