Mideast nations lukewarm to peace summit

updated 5:56 p.m. ET Nov. 21, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt - Arab countries are warming — slightly — to next week’s U.S.-brokered Mideast peace conference despite worries about being pressured to make too many concessions.

Syria is still on the fence about going. And Saudi Arabia is holding out for promises that the conference will launch a firm timetable to negotiate the thorniest Israeli-Palestinian issues — the borders of a Palestinian state, the status of east Jerusalem and the future of millions of Palestinian refugees.

Syria appeared to be softening its conditions for attending the gathering in Annapolis, Md., with President Bashar Assad telling his leadership they must deal with the current situation in a “rational” way. It is being lured by warmer handling by its Arab neighbors, including a visit by Jordan’s king, the first in nearly four years.

But it remained uncertain Wednesday if a Syrian delegation would show up in Annapolis.

The United States has made clear it seeks high-level delegates from key Arab countries to underline support for the Palestinian-Israeli talks that have been deadlocked since 2001.

But many in the Arab world look with skepticism at what they view as a sudden U.S. renewal of interest in a new Middle East peace process, especially after years of reluctance by the Bush administration.

They worry that Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is being lured into a public relations show that will have little substance, boosting Israel without committing it on the Arabs’ central demand — a withdrawal from land Israel seized in the 1967 war.

Saudi Arabia, whose monarch King Abdullah championed a 2002 Arab peace-for-land proposal, insists that the initiative be included in any deal.

Egypt: Bush has good understanding of concerns
Countries like Egypt also want guarantees that any promises or timetables agreed to in Annapolis will be monitored in some way.

After initially expressing skepticism about the conference, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak has since endorsed it and worked on hammering out an Arab consensus ahead of the talks. He plans to meet Thursday with the leaders of Jordan and the Palestinians in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik.

To justify the new Egyptian attitude, Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said Wednesday that the invitation sent by the Bush administration touched on many Arab concerns. “It reflects a good and accurate understanding of the importance of achieving a just and comprehensive peace in the region and a settlement of the Palestinian issue,” he said.

Saudi Arabia, Syria may not attend
Mubarak’s efforts to include Saudi Arabia and Syria at Thursday’s summit hit a snag: An Arab diplomat said the two countries’ leaders were too involved in Lebanon’s presidential succession crisis to participate. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media.

Arab foreign ministers were expected to finalize a unified stance Friday, after which the invited countries will announce whether — and at what level — they will attend the Annapolis meeting. So far, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates have said they are attending, and Jordan is a sure bet.

“The whole situation will be reviewed and we will see the cost and the benefit,” Hesham Youssef, a senior aide to the Arab League’s Secretary-General Amr Moussa, told The Associated Press. “But certainly it is an opportunity and we hope that Israel will be committed this time.”

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