Britain, Israel Hold Out Prospect of Mideast Talks

Britain, Israel Hold Out Prospect of Mideast Talks

Reuters
Date: Mon, Dec 06, 2004

By Matt Spetalnick

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Britain and Israel on Monday held out the prospect of a Middle East peace conference in London after the Palestinians elect a successor to Yasser Arafat on Jan. 9.

Britain's Daily Telegraph reported that Britain had won U.S. agreement for an international meeting early next year and that Prime Minister Tony Blair would discuss details with Israeli and Palestinian leaders during a visit to the region this month.

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon has long resisted the idea of a peace summit, fearing it would be a forum for putting pressure on the Jewish state to make concessions to the Palestinians.

But a senior Israeli official said Sharon would be willing to consider such a meeting if Israel and Washington's favored candidate, moderate former prime minister Mahmoud Abbas, won the Palestinian presidency and other key conditions were met.

"We would have no objection to the conference, as long as it is not a ploy to advance anti-Israel propaganda, it is non-binding and will not decide any issues," the official said.

A U.S. official said he was unaware of any change in Washington's view that such a meeting should be held only after progress had been made on a U.S.-sponsored "road map" to peace. The plan has been stalled by persistent violence.

Blair has said resolving the conflict is a top priority. "Now is the moment to grasp the opportunities," he said at a news conference with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf.

President Bush, standing shoulder to shoulder with Blair last month, vowed to use his second term to achieve a peace deal that would include a Palestinian state.

TALK PREMATURE?

British and Israeli officials said talk of a conference was premature until after the Palestinians vote. "The next step is the Palestinian election and helping the process," Blair's spokesman said. "We are not going to jump ahead."

The meeting, in late January or early February, is likely to be attended by foreign ministers, the Telegraph said. The paper said the conference would be announced only after the Palestinian ballot and would depend on Abbas being elected.

It quoted an Israeli source as saying "there will be no conference" if Palestinians elect Marwan Barghouthi, a popular grassroots leader serving five life sentences in an Israeli jail on a conviction for ordering militant attacks that killed Israelis. He has denied any involvement in violence.

A poll showed Abbas and Barghouthi running neck-and-neck.

The newspaper quoted diplomatic sources as saying preparations for the conference now dominated U.S.-British foreign policy talks and were at the heart of attempts to heal rifts between Washington and some European nations over Iraq.

"There may be a London conference ...," British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw told the Independent newspaper. Referring to previous Middle East conferences, he said: "This would be a more discreet arrangement to do with the day after in Gaza."

But Sharon may be reluctant to commit himself to backing such a high-profile event until after he has carried out his plan to remove all Jewish settlements in Gaza by the end of 2005.

For its part, the Bush administration may be wary of joining in without the promise of a significant breakthrough.

The 1991 Madrid conference launched an international drive that led to the Oslo peace accords, which have been shredded by the past four years of Israeli-Palestinian violence.

Blair discussed a possible conference with Bush last month but apparently received no U.S. commitment. Skeptics say Blair is trying to polish his credentials as a peacemaker to counter domestic criticism of Britain's part in the Iraq war.

(Additional reporting by Mike Peacock and Madeline Chambers in London)

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