Syria to attend Middle East peace meeting
Middle East Desk Report

DAMASCUS—Syria is to attend a US-hosted Middle East peace conference although at a lower level of representation, a source close to the foreign ministry said on Sunday.
Deputy Foreign Minister Faisal “Mekdad will represent Syria officially at the Annapolis,” Maryland, conference which aims to revive the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, the source told AFP. More than a dozen other Arab countries attending the conference on Tuesday, including Saudi Arabia, are sending their foreign ministers. Mekdad is a former Syrian ambassador to the United Nations.
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. Israel swiftly welcomed Syria’s decision to attend, saying its participation could also open a peace track between the two Middle East neighbours. “Israel sees in a positive way the high-ranking participation of Syria at the Annapolis meeting,” Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s spokeswoman Miri Eisin told AFP.
“This conference is clearly about advancing the Israeli-Palesintian peace process and also about the possibility to open additional avenues for peace,” she said. Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said earlier that Israel dropped its initial objections to raising the issue of the occupied Golan Heights during the meeting.
“I believe that Syria has taken a decision to attend the meeting because we included the term ‘comprehensive peace’ in the agenda,” she said in Washington where she accompanied Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to the meeting.
“There will be a plenary session which I will also attend and where issues pertaining to the comprehensive peace in the Middle East can be discussed, and that includes everything. The Golan could also be raised there,” Livni said. But Syria’s key regional ally Iran on Sunday dismissed the conference as useless and slammed Arab states for taking part.
“The so-called conference... is of no benefit to the Palestinian people and has the aim of supporting the occupying Zionists,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said in a speech, quoted by the official IRNA news agency. “Participation in this conference is a sign of a lack of political intelligence.
“History will not look positively on the name of those who participate in this conference and help the Zionist regime,” the Iranian president said. Ahmadinejad also held talks on the telephone with Syrian counterpart Bashar al-Assad on Sunday, the Iranian news agency ISNA reported