Diplomats give up on joint Israeli-Palestinian statement for Annapolis
Top officials in Jerusalem say Palestinians have backtracked to starting point of negotiations but insist no crisis is at hand despite failure to agree on key issues days before invites to shaky peace conference
A stalemate in negotiations may lead Israel and the Palestinian Authority to write up separate statements detailing their political agendas ahead of the US-led peace conference scheduled to commence November 27th at Annapolis, Maryland.
"At present time, we don't have a joint statement or even a draft for one," said a top Israeli diplomat in Jerusalem on Sunday, "the Palestinians have backpedaled to square one, to the first day of negotiations."
However, the official said, the lack of a joint statement in and of itself did not constitute a breakdown in the talks.
"Annapolis will re-launch the negotiations for a permanent agreement, that's where the issues will be debated, there's no need for a joint statement if that's the situation.
"It's enough for us to know that there will be some 40 representatives from 40 nations there to get this process underway, the vast majority of whom are at the very least ministers for foreign affairs," said the official.
The formal invitations for the conference are scheduled to be issued on Tuesday.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Ehud Olmert continues to maintain a hectic schedule in the week leading up to the conference. On Sunday he met with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and on Monday he plans to meet with British Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
Miliband, who is already in Israel, met on Sunday with Defense Minister Ehud Barak and thanked Israel's national soccer team for its 2-1 victory over Russia on Saturday evening in a European Championship qualifying match. The win puts England back
in the running and put a considerable dent in Russia's hopes of advancing.
After his meeting with Miliband, Olmert will ask the cabinet to authorize the release of 500 Palestinian prisoners as a goodwill gesture towards Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas – who he will meet with later that evening in Jerusalem.
Olmert's aides confirmed the meeting and said the two leaders intend to bring their expectations of the Annapolis talks into line. The PM's office stressed that the meeting would not replace the function of the negotiation teams working on a joint statement.
