Is Syria going to Annapolis? cont’d (1)
Haaretz newspaper is reporting today that Israel’s air strike on Syria in September has made it possible for the U.S. to invite Syria to Annapolis (!)
Haaretz says that “The Bush administration decided to invite Syria to the Annapolis conference due to Israel’s September air strike on what foreign media have termed a Syrian nuclear facility, American officials said. ‘Syria lost an important card in the air force strike, and that moved even members of the administration’s conservative camp to reconsider the position on Damascus‘, one said. The officials added that inviting Syria would reduce the likelihood of its encouraging Hezbollah and Hamas to undermine the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks that Annapolis is supposed to launch. Israeli and American officials held talks over the weekend on a formula for referring to the Syrian track that would suffice to bring Syria to the conference without undermining Israel’s interests. In the end, Washington decided to change the topic of the third session from ‘the Arab states’ involvement in the process’ to ‘the effort to achieve a comprehensive regional peace’ - language that implies peace deals with Syria and Lebanon as well as the Palestinians“. The Haaretz report on Syria’s presence being encouraged in Annapolis is here.
The Haaretz article also reported that “Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Defense Minister Ehud Barak all left for Annapolis Saturday night. Speaking on board his plane as he was about to leave for Washington, Olmert said Israel would ‘view positively’ Syria’s participation in the conference. ‘We have said constantly that we are interested in Syria participating’, Olmert said.
Tags: Annapolis event, Israel, Syria
November 25th, 2007 at 7:54 pm
[...] reason that everyone, in the end, desperately wanted Syria to attend [See our earlier posts, here, and [...]