President George W. Bush said that the United States will "help
facilitate" the Middle East peace process in a meeting with
Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas at the White House on Monday
afternoon.
Following a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Edhud Olmert,
Bush said to Abbas in the Oval Office "we want to help you. We want
there to be peace. We want the people in the Palestinian
territories to have hope."
He noted that the United States cannot impose Middle East peace"
but can help facilitate it."
The two leaders were meeting before a Tuesday Middle East peace
conference in Annapolis, Maryland, that would be attended by more
than 50 countries and organizations including some 16 Arab
nations.
Abbas said that he expected the conference could "produce
permanent status negotiations, expanded negotiations, overall
permanent status issues that would lead to a peace agreement
between Israel and the Palestinian people."
The Annapolis conference is seen as a new round of U.S. efforts
to resume Israeli-Palestinian peace talks seven years after the
last one with the aim at the creation of a Palestinian state by
January, 2009 when Bush's second term ends.
As a series of diplomatic warm-up for the conference kicked off
on Monday, Bush received Olmert at the White House and State
Secretary Condoleezza Rice's is also expected to meet with
Palestinian and Israeli chief negotiators.
U.S. Secretary of State spokesman Sean McCormack expressed his
optimism towards the conference by saying "we will get to Annapolis
in a good shape to accomplish all of the objectives that we, as
well as the other participants, have laid out for the
conference."
On a Palestinian-Israeli joint document that is set to be
released later Monday, McCormack described it as "a work plan" for
future negotiations between Israel and Palestine, but he refused to
disclose any details.
"It is something that will document their understandings of how
to move forward what this process looks like going forward," he
said, adding that the document, however, may not win approval from
other conference participants.
McCormack also noted the important role of the international
community, "not only the U.S.," in the Middle East peace
process.
"This is going to require a global effort to help the parties
get to the point where they are able to make hard decisions that
will result in a two state solution. But we are going to play an
important role moving forward."?
(Xinhua News Agency November 27, 2007)
