The McClatchy newspaper group is reporting from Cairo that “Olmert and Abbas, however, have yet to agree on the joint statement they pledged to announce at the conference, and some Arab officials said Friday that the conference planning appeared haphazard. The event, initially billed as a groundbreaking summit, has shrunk to a half-day event that one senior Egyptian official, who diplomatically spoke only on the condition of anonymity, derided as a ‘coffee party’. As late as this week, some participants complained that they still hadn’t received formal invitations, and skeptics said the conference wasn’t likely to yield more than a promise of more talks. In a column in an Arabic-language newspaper, former Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher dismissed the event as a ‘theatrical farce.” The McClatchy report from Cairo is here.
A week ago, Egypt’s President Husni Mubarak urged that judgement be withheld until the Annapolis outcome is clear.