By Stan Goodenough
Nov 01, 2007
PLO/PA chief Mahmoud Abbas said this week he is confident a whole slew of Arab countries will be in the United States for the upcoming 'Conference on the Creation of Palestine.'
The US-sponsored event is scheduled to be held in Annapolis, Maryland, sometime in November.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is expected to announce the date in the coming days.
Speaking to reporters after meeting with Egyptian leaders in Cairo Tuesday, Abbas said he fully expects the most influential Arab countries to send delegates to the US.
"It is certain now that those who will attend the conference are the Quartet, the permanent Security Council members, the Arab follow-up committee which includes Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Sudan, Syria, Palestine, Qatar, Lebanon, Morocco, Yemen and the Arab League secretary-general Amr Moussa."
The terrorist-in-a-tie - who has been internationally embraced as a statesman despite never having renounced violence as a means to attaining a Palestinian state on Israel's land - had threatened to boycott the conference unless Israel agreed beforehand on all the vital issues.
Saeb Erekat, Abbas' chief negotiator, said the PA's position "is very clear."
"We won't go to the conference unless we reach an agreement with Israel on the final status issues and a clear timetable for the implementation of any agreement between the two parties."
Erekat stressed that Abbas had succeeded in persuading Arab and other Islamic countries to endorse the "Palestinian" position and to set conditions for attending the planned conference.
We [Arabs] are now "united toward the conference [and] have all endorsed the Arab peace plan (sic) as the basis for solving the Israeli-Arab conflict."
Last week Abbas reportedly told Rice he would resign should the conference fail.
If this happened, opined a reporter in The Jerusalem Post it would pave the way for another round of violence and for the emergence of al-Qaida in the PA-occupied areas.