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Peace Process

Anxious Rice, Olmert: Annapolis may not happen


By Stan Goodenough
October 25, 2007

Doubts surfaced at the highest levels Wednesday over whether or not next month's conference aimed at pushing forward the creation of a Palestinian state on Israel's land will convene after all.

According to the Israeli news site Ynetnews, US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice revealed that the conference could be in jeopardy.

"Our concern is growing that without a serious political prospect for the Palestinians ... we will lose the window for a two-state solution," Rice, who has invested heavily in trying to get the conference off the ground, told the House of Representatives Foreign Relations Committee.

Her fears were echoed by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who Wednesday morning played down expectations for the conference, saying it would not produce a binding peace agreement with the “Palestinians” and may not even take place.

"If all goes well, hopefully, we will meet in Annapolis," he said, according to the Associated Press, then went on to stress that "Annapolis is not made to be the event for the declaration of peace."

Olmert is scheduled to meet with PLO/PA chairman Mahmoud Abbas Friday morning in an effort to iron out differences still separating the two sides.

Meanwhile Rice, who was in Jerusalem and Ramallah just last week, plans to return again November 4 in order to lend her weight to the "serious effort underway to draft a joint document that could lay the foundation for negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

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