U.S. to Invite Several Arab Nations to Peace Talks

UNITED NATIONS, Sept. 23 -- The United States intends to invite Saudi Arabia, Syria and other Arab countries that do not have relations with Israel to a Middle East peace conference that will be held in the United States this fall, a senior State Department official said Sunday.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, noting that invitations have not yet been issued, seemed to put some conditions on attendance later Sunday. "Coming to this meeting also brings certain responsibilities," which includes renouncing violence and supporting the right of both Israel and Palestine to exist, she said.

Rice spoke after a whirlwind of meetings here with top Arab officials and members of an international peace coordinating body known as the Quartet. The Quartet, which includes the United States, Russia, the European Union and the United Nations, met with its representative for building Palestinian institutions, former British prime minister Tony Blair, and issued a statement saying that it expects the Middle East conference to "affirm its support for the two-state solution based on a rejection of violence."

The announcement of the invitation list raises the stakes for a meeting that President Bush announced over the summer. The administration had been coy about who might be invited, though officials privately made clear they hoped the Saudis would attend because Riyadh, unlike Jordan and Egypt, does not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

The State Department official, speaking to reporters on the condition of anonymity, said Rice will invite Israel and the Palestinian Authority, their neighbors, members of the Quartet, an Arab League negotiating committee and other "key players." The Arab League "follow-up committee" includes Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Syria, the Palestinian Authority, Qatar, Lebanon, Egypt, Morocco, Oman, Algeria, Bahrain, Yemen and Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.

"The invitations are very important because for the time being the Saudis are not coming, the Egyptians are reluctant, et cetera," French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said in an interview last week. "The Arab League, Amr Moussa, told me they will not attend the conference without a moratorium on settlements."

Both Saudi Arabia and Syria, along with Egypt, Jordan, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, sent representatives to a dinner Rice and other diplomats held Sunday night to discuss the conference further, another U.S. official said.

After meeting with Rice earlier Sunday, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal sidestepped a question about whether his government will attend the conference. The invitations to Syria and Lebanon are significant as well because Israel was reported to have attacked Syria earlier this month and fought a war in Lebanon last summer -- and because the United States has accused the Syrian government of fomenting violence in the region. Rice noted to reporters that she has called for Syria to change its behavior.

According to the State Department, Rice assured diplomats here that the autumn conference will be "serious and substantive" and will discuss the "core issues" of the dispute -- diplomatic code for topics such as borders, the status of refugees and the division of Jerusalem.

But the contours and goals of the conference, tentatively scheduled for mid-November, are still up in the air. Rice, who made a quick trip to the Middle East last week, told reporters as she flew back to Washington that Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas would issue a "joint statement" in which they would "memorialize understandings."

Diplomats said there are still wide gaps between Olmert and Abbas about how detailed the statement should be.

Abbas wants to be as specific as possible, but Olmert is under pressure in Israel to remain vague. Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak last week harshly criticized Olmert for his efforts, warning against a "withdrawal from Israeli principles that have stood for 40 years, merely to gain favor in the eyes of an American president who is leaving office in a year." He told the newspaper Haaretz that even if Abbas wants to sign a peace agreement with Israel, the Palestinian leader lacks the power to implement it.

Rice and her aides have taken a hands-off approach to the writing of the document, largely leaving it to the parties themselves.

Kouchner, who has met twice with Abbas and Olmert and visited Rice in Washington last week, said that the conference as currently envisioned has limited goals. He said it would offer a "little paper" that would have a "very light framework."

Still, he added that he sees the continuing conversation between Olmert and Abbas as a "real opportunity," in part because both men are politically weak and there are such low expectations for the conference. Negotiations to create a Palestinian state "will take years, it will take months at least, with no result," he said. "So this is a very light, weak, magnificent possibility."