Syria to attend Middle East peace meeting in US

[maddezmom]

Source: AFP

DAMASCUS (AFP) - Syria will attend a US-hosted Middle East peace conference but send its deputy foreign minister rather than the country's top diplomat, a source close to the foreign ministry said on Sunday.

Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal "Mekdad will represent Syria officially at the Annapolis," Maryland, conference due to take place on Tuesday, the source told AFP.

Other Arab countries attending the conference, including Saudi Arabia, are sending their foreign ministers.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem had pegged Syria's participation on an agreement by Washington to include the issue of the Golan Heights, which Israel has occupied since 1967, on the agenda of the conference.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20071125/wl_afp/mideastdiplomacysyria_071125134212

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Livni: Arabs can't dictate summit terms By AMY TEIBEL, Associated Press Writer
5 minutes ago



WASHINGTON - As Arab nations prepared to sit down with Israel for the first time in more than a decade, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Sunday made it clear they should not expect to dictate the contours of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Livni spoke days after Arab League members grudgingly agreed to send their foreign ministers to a much-anticipated U.S.-hosted conference meant to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a violent, seven-year lull in negotiations.

On the plane carrying Livni and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the U.S., Livni suggested that a lack of Arab backing contributed to the failure of the last round of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which broke down in bloodshed in early 2001. The Arab world, she said, "should stop sitting on the fence."

more:http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20071125/ap_on_re_mi_ea/mideast_summit

[Scurrilous]

1. Golan Heights shrugs off peace talks

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"Syria's decision to attend the Annapolis summit on Mideast peace has raised the prospect of negotiations with Israel over the Golan Heights. But Israeli settlers say they are not worried the strategic plateau may return to Syrian control, pointing to a long history of failed attempts to settle the dispute.

Syria agreed to send its deputy foreign minister to the Mideast conference Monday after the United States said Damascus would be free to bring up the Golan Heights, which Israel seized 40 years ago.

Syria has said peace would require Israel to return the Golan, and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has signaled he is ready to do so.

Israeli settlers living in the territory doubt anything will change soon.

"This is a ritual that repeats itself and never leads to anything," said Sammy Bar-Lev, the mayor of Katzrin, the largest Jewish town in the Golan, with 7,500 residents. "We're not dealing with this at all. If they (Syria) want peace, they will have to get used to the fact that the border is not changing."

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