Whatever what will happen in Annapolis conference and who will lose and who will win, we can say that the Arabs will not lose any thing. They will not accept to normalize the relations with Israel unless Israel agrees to implement a comprehensive peace on all the tracks according to the Arab initiative. The Arab participants did not present any verbal or written concessions which may destroy the Palestinian issue.

All the Arabs agreed that the borders of the Palestinian state must be the borders of 1967 and East Jerusalem must be an open capital for the Palestinian State. Abou-Mazen had achieved a great support from the international community to establish the Palestinian State and improve the living conditions of the Palestinians through 4 main projects. Three projects will be implemented in the West Bank and the fourth one will be in Gaza Sector to create job opportunities through an economic conference which will be held in Paris during the coming weeks. Saudi Arabia, other Gulf countries and International Monetary Organizations will participate in the conference.

All the Arab countries supported Abou-Mazen in his attitude to force the international community to resume Palestinian-Israeli and Israeli-Syrian peace negotiations.

Annapolis conference gathered all the parties including the 5 permanent members in the Security Council and most of the International and Monetary Organizations.

Israelis confessed in the conference that the only path for achieving peace in the ME is establishing two separate States. Annapolis conference paved the path for the Palestinians and the Israelis to reach a just settlement restricted by a fixed timetable. The conference is just an occasion to start the negotiations on the Palestinian path after 7 years.

Makram Mohamed Ahmed

Al Ahram

29/11/2007