Arab League, Saudi Arabia to attend peace talks

updated 12:15 p.m. ET Nov. 23, 2007

CAIRO, Egypt - Saudi Arabia and other Arab nations decided Friday to attend next week’s U.S.-sponsored Middle East peace conference. But the Saudi foreign minister said he would not allow “theatrics” such as handshakes with Israeli officials, insisting the meeting make serious progress.

It was still unclear whether Syria — the other major holdout — would attend. Syria has insisted the conference address its demands for the return of the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau which Israel captured in a 1967 war.

The Arab decision was a collective one, including Syria. But after the announcement, Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem told reporters: “We haven’t made a decision to participate until we receive the agenda of the conference and read it to find an item addressing the Syrian-Israeli track, meaning the occupied Golan Heights.”

Participation by Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal was a key goal of the United States to show strong Arab support for the conference, which aims to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks for the first time in seven years. The United States is hosting the talks from Nov. 26-28 in Washington and Annapolis, Md.

Arab League nations decide to attend
Until Friday, the kingdom had balked at saying whether it would attend and at what level, seeking assurances Israel would negotiate the most difficult issues of the Arab-Israeli conflict on a timetable.

Al-Faisal told a news conference the 22-member Arab League had decided Arab countries will attend the conference at the level of foreign minister.

“I’m not hiding any secret about the Saudi position. We were reluctant until today. And if not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go,” al-Faisal said. “But the kingdom would never stand against an Arab consensus, as long as the Arab position has agreed on attending. The kingdom will walk along with its brothers in one line.”

He insisted that the meeting deal with substantive issues.

“We are not prepared to take part in a theatrical show, in handshakes and meeting that don’t express political positions,” al-Faisal said.

Asked if Syria would attend, Arab League chief Amr Moussa said: “Syria’s foreign minister was present” at the discussions and “the decision is a joint decision.”

But it was not entirely clear from his comments whether Syria could still decide not to attend or may send a lower-level representative.

“We are waiting for final arrangements and it will take place in the additional talks,” al-Faisal said. Those talks will take place in a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in Washington on Monday, a day before the Annapolis conference.

Photo opportunity feared
Saudi Arabia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, has feared the conference would become little more than a photo opportunity, cornering it into high-profile public contacts with Israel without a guarantee of concessions from the Jewish state.

The kingdom was looking for an Israeli commitment that Israeli-Palestinian negotiations will tackle the core, most difficult issues of the conflict, such as final borders of a Palestinian state, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.

But in the end, it is going without a guarantee of getting those commitments in writing.

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