Abbas aide reports progress toward pact

WASHINGTON—An elusive joint Israeli-Palestinian statement on the contours of future peace talks is within reach, a senior member of the Palestinian delegation said Monday, hours before a high-stakes international conference on the Mideast was to open.
After months of trying to forge a joint outline, Israel and the Palestinians have made an 11th-hour push in recent days to come up with a statement for presentation at the gathering, which is to be the first time that Israel, a large group of Arab states and international envoys from around the world sit down together to try to relaunch a peace process.
“We will reach a joint paper today or tomorrow,” Yasser Abed Rabbo, a senior aide to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told The Associated Press. “There is a persistent American effort to have this statement.” President Bush was expected to lend his clout to help nail down an agreement in separate meetings Monday with Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Talks on the joint statement had faltered over a Palestinian desire that it address, at least in general terms, key issues of Palestinian statehood — final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost homes in Israel following its 1948 creation.
Israel has pressed for a broader, vaguer statement of commitment to two states living side-by-side in peace. It has promised to negotiate the contentious issues, however, in the formal negotiations that are to follow the conference.
In a statement Sunday on the international gathering that begins Monday night with a dinner, Bush said, “I remain personally committed to implementing my vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security.”
“The Israelis and Palestinians have waited a long time for this vision to be realized, and I call upon all those gathering in Annapolis this week to redouble their efforts to turn dreams of peace into reality,” he said.
Bush will open the Annapolis conference with a speech. He’ll make clear that Mideast peace is a top priority for the rest of his time in office through January 2009, but he is not expected to advance any of his own ideas on how to achieve that, Bush national security adviser Stephen Hadley said Sunday.
“It is now time for the parties to get into this process by way of negotiation,” Hadley told reporters. “And I don’t think the president will conclude that the time is right to start offering ideas on outcomes on specific issues. ... This is not a negotiation session. It is to launch a negotiation, and for the parties then to take a lead.”
Hadley also said the joint statement was not as important as it had initially appeared. The two sides had taken the unexpected step of agreeing to negotiations, so the document was no longer a vehicle necessary to bring them to that point, he said.
“If we get something, if they can agree on some things as an input to the negotiations, that would be fine,” Hadley said. “But I think it is really no longer on the critical path to a successful conference.”
The run-up to the meeting has been fraught with disputes, skepticism and suspicion about the opposing parties’ good faith. And expectations remain low.
But Bush has been buoyed by Arab endorsement of the meeting and the possibilities for broader peacemaking. He will be asked to use his presidential heft to promote a joint blueprint for talks that are to follow, Israeli and Palestinian officials said Sunday.
Clinching a joint statement of objectives from Abbas and Olmert might was seen as a tall order because of the charged issues that divide the two sides. On more than one occasion, negotiations have splintered over the key questions of Palestinian statehood — final borders, sovereignty over disputed Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees who lost homes in Israel following its 1948 creation.—Agencies
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice wasn’t able to bridge the gaps, even after eight missions to the region this year. Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met late Sunday with Rice in a last-ditch effort to wrap up the task.
“We’re confident there will be a document and we’ll get to Annapolis in good shape on that,” but bargaining may continue behind the scenes on Tuesday, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. Still, whatever joint agreement the Israelis and Palestinians present at Annapolis will be a starting point and is likely to sketch only vague bargaining terms. The big questions that have doomed previous peace efforts would come later.
Rabbo had said earlier that Palestinians hoped to work out a joint document, but that an agreement was not essential because of assurances received in the U.S. invitation to the conference. That invitation, he said, “includes all the terms of reference for the future negotiation” and “confirms that both sides are committed” to putting in place the peace process. “This is enough to launch negotiations after the conference.”