Israeli, Palestinian Presidents unite behind ‘historic’ Mideast meet

Israeli and Palestinian presidents Shimon Peres and Mahmud Abbas on Tuesday hailed an upcoming Middle East peace conference as an historic opportunity while warning that failure could spell fresh trouble for the region.

The conference to be held in Annapolis in the US state of Maryland “is an historic opportunity that should not turn into an historic failure,” Peres said in a landmark address to the Turkish parliament, the first by an Israeli leader in a Muslim-majority country.

The conference will allow Palestinians and Israelis to “work in depth on a peace agreement,” giving it “a direction, a framework and acceleration,” Peres, speaking in Hebrew, said through an intepreter.

“Let me underline that Israel is determined to end this disagreement,” he added.

Abbas, who took the rostrum after Peres, warned that missing the chance presented by the US-sponsored meeting could lead to “dangerous consequences”.

“We must without fail seize this exceptional opportunity,” said Abbas, the first Palestinian leader to speak before the Turkish parliament. The Annapolis conference, which will take place later this year, aims to jumpstart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations that broke down seven years ago with the second intifada, or uprising.

But a senior Israeli official said that the meeting may last only a single day and not involve any real negotiations on ending the conflict.

The positions of the two sides are precarious in the run-up to the Annapolis meeting, analysts said, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert fearing his fractious coalition could collapse if he makes concessions to the Palestinians.

Abbas could see the radical Islamist movement Hamas strengthened and a new round of violence flare if he comes back empty-handed.

Ankara, Wednesday, AFP