One has to wonder what will befall this Nation the next couple of
weeks.Check out the latest comparisons of FEMA disasters/ events for 2007 either
during or shortly after a Rice trip to M.E. to carve up God's land, and
then read this article with that in mind.http://www.watch.org/showart.php3?idx=98070&rtn=/index.html&showsubj=1&mcat=1
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Last update - 09:08 20/11/2007
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U.S. set to issue official invites for Mideast peace conference
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By The Associated Press
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The United States plans to issue as early as Tuesday official
invitations to a much-anticipated Middle East conference, to be held
next week at Annapolis, Maryland, hoping for strong backing from a
select a href="http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/923089.html">group of
Arab nations for the U.S. effort to relaunch Israeli-Palestinian peace
talks.
As the U.S. finalizes preparations, the State Department will start
sending out invitations overnight for the event, U.S. officials said
Monday. The conference will be held in Annapolis on November 27 in
between meetings in Washington.
The main guests are the Israelis and the Palestinians, and President
George W. Bush's administration is also planning to invite Egypt,
Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria and key international players in the peace
process, the officials said.
The invitations are to be sent by diplomatic cable to U.S. embassies in
the countries concerned, with instructions to Washington's ambassadors
to present them to their host governments' foreign ministries, the
officials said. They will ask that each nation send its highest-ranking
appropriate official to Annapolis.
The White House has said Bush will attend at least part of the event
chaired by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who also will host
a pre-conference dinner at the State Department on November 26,
according to the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity ahead of
the announcement.
The State Department held off on invitations in an attempt to get as
much done to prepare for the meeting before formally committing to the
dates. Details about the meeting, including the guest list and agenda,
are expected to be made public in the coming days.
U.S. State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said preparations for the
meeting were nearly complete and Rice had spent a good deal of time over
the weekend calling officials in the Middle East for last-minute
consultations.
Among others, Rice telephoned Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian
Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul-Gheit. She also called Lebanese
President Fuad Siniora, with whom she discussed both peace efforts and
Lebanon's upcoming presidential elections, McCormack said.
Bush, who announced plans for the conference in July, and Rice hope
Annapolis will launch the first serious round of Israel-Palestinian
peace talks in more than seven years with the participants' endorsement
of a joint document now being prepared by Israeli and Palestinian
officials.
"We do have a sense that they are continuing to make progress, not only
on the document but also on what comes after Annapolis," McCormack said.
While awaiting the formal announcement of the conference, the State
Department also welcomed pre-Annapolis steps announced Monday by
Olmert's cabinet, including the release of Palestinian prisoners and a
fresh commitment to not construct new settlements in the West Bank.
"Our view is that the steps that the Israeli government has announced
are positive confidence-building measures in the run-up to Annapolis,"
McCormack said, adding that such steps are points that both sides can
build on, where they can build up that mutual confidence and try to
improve daily lives on both sides, for both the Palestinians as well as
the Israelis.
Meanwhile, a large group of U.S. lawmakers urged Rice in a letter to
make the most of the conference.
"Clearly, robust, hands-on U.S. leadership and diplomacy is necessary to
frame not only on what transpires at the meeting, but on what takes
place before and after it," said the letter, co-authored by Reps. Gary
Ackerman, a Democrat, and Republican Charles Boustany Jr., and signed by
133 other members of Congress.
Separately, former national security adviser Brent Scowcroft, a Rice
mentor, and other well-known Washington advisers warned Bush and Rice in
a letter last month that the session must tackle the substance of a
permanent peace and that its failure risks devastating consequences.
The letter is to be re-released Tuesday with more signatures, including
Brookings Institution scholar Diana Villiers Negroponte, wife of Deputy
Secretary of State John Negroponte.
The Annapolis invitation list has been a poorly kept secret since
mid-September, when U.S. officials first began floating ideas about who
should attend.
The administration is hoping for significant representation from Arab
countries, whose foreign ministers are to meet Thursday and Friday in
Cairo to form a joint position on the conference.
The U.S. has already said the 13 nations that make up the Arab League's
follow-up committee on a broad Arab-Israeli peace settlement are to be
invited.
Aside from the Palestinians and Arab League Secretary General Amr
Moussa, the committee members are Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan,
Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Others expected to be invited include the members that, with the United
States, make up the Quartet of Mideast peacemakers - the United Nations,
European Union and Russia. Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair will
also be asked to attend in his capacity as the Quartet's envoy to the
Middle East.
Invitations may also go to select European states with a past role or
interest in Mideast peacemaking such as France, Germany and Britain,
along with G8 economic powers that were not covered by other
invitations, such as Canada, Japan and Italy.