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Will the 2007 Mideast peace talks in the US accomplish anything?
Title: Behind The Scenes of the Bush Administration – Eye on Iran
Article: Three unpopular leaders walked confidently into the Memorial Hall at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, safe in the knowledge that no matter what they so or do, they can’t make things any worse. Seven long and violence tarnished years after Bill Clinton’s failed Camp David peace talks with Ariel Sharon and Yasser Arafat.
We now come to that time again when an American President, in the final throws of his administration, takes a crack at solving one of the most complex issues of our time The Israel/Palestine conflict. World leaders, including in a potentially historic move, representatives from Saudi Arabia and Syria, joined the American President in Annapolis, Maryland with the distant hope of creating a lasting peace in a conflict that has been going on now for sixty long years.
This Annapolis meeting is surrounded by an air of scepticism for many, quite valid reasons. Olmert, Bush and Abbas are seen as weak within their own countries.
There are no set goals for the talks, only a brief mention of creating a two-state solution. And the third and perhaps most obvious problem facing those meeting in Annapolis is that even if every party involved in talks agreed to a peace deal instantly, Israeli’s most vociferous enemy, and if the Bush Administrations PR department are to believed, the world’s leading exporter of terror,
Iran, isn’t even invited to try and solve the problem. The talks should be seen from the perspective, not of those who want to solve the problem, but those who don’t and why.
Quite honestly, without the involvement of Iran and Hamas in the process this conference has little chance of achieving peace for the Israelis and Palestinians. It is, insidiously, designed to fail. The architect of such a conference, if they had the goal of peace in mind, would have to talk to those who are against peace in order to negotiate with them a settlement.
When Clinton invited Arafat, many people questioned his decision. But isn’t Arafat a terrorist?, they said. Clinton knew that to achieve peace, you had to work with those who wanted to fight. For all the cache within the Arab world that Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan carry, and even though they talk tough, they are at various stages of peace with Israel already.
The most interesting inclusion into the Annapolis talks is Syria. Damascus, still teetering on the border of the Axis of Good and Evil, are attending
Tags: American President, Annapolis Maryland, Ariel Sharon, Bush Administration, Bush Administrations, Camp David, David Peace, Israel Palestine Conflict, Israelis And Palestinians, Lasting Peace, Little Chance, Mideast Peace Talks, Naval Academy, Peace Deal, Peace In Mind, Pr Department, Saudi Arabia, Scepticism, Unpopular Leaders, Yasser Arafat