ANNAPOLIS, Maryland, 28 November 2007 — US President George W. Bush told Israeli and Palestinian leaders gathered for a Middle East conference yesterday that the time was right to work toward peace but cautioned the path would be difficult.
Bush held a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shortly before opening a high-stakes conference that includes diplomats from more than 40 countries.
“The time is right, the cause is just, and with hard effort, I know they can succeed,” Bush said in remarks prepared for delivery to the daylong conference at the US Naval Academy.
He planned to say the purpose at Annapolis was not to conclude an accord, but instead to launch negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians.
“The task begun here at Annapolis will be difficult,” Bush said in the remarks released in advance by the White House. “This is the beginning of the process, not the end of it, and much work remains to be done.”
Earlier, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal briefed American reporters on Monday at the Saudi Embassy in Washington, telling them that the Kingdom fervently wants to improve the living conditions of Palestinians by giving them a viable independent state to live in.
“The Palestinians are not primitive people, yet under Israeli occupation they are leading miserable, primitive lives. We are sensitive to all that and we will help with that,” said Prince Saud referring to a donors conference for Palestine that will be held soon in Paris. He pledged that Saudi Arabia would be the biggest contributor.
On the Kingdom’s ongoing diplomatic efforts to forge some sort of reconciliation between the Hamas and Fatah factions of the Palestinians, Prince Saud said that the efforts were ongoing.
“We have tried to bring them together. Work by our commission is ongoing. The two parties are continuing to converse in order to identify and resolve issues. They must recognize a government of national unity...and they must give up their militias,” he said.
On the issue of the recent Qatif Girl verdict appeal, in which her punishment was more than doubled to 200 lashes and six months in jail, the Saudi foreign minister admitted that it was a bad judgment, but one that could be overturned on appeal.
“It was a bad judgment handed down by the Saudi legal system. ...Bad legal judgments also sometimes occur in the United States, but no one vilifies the American people and the US government because of them. ...The legal process is continuing. It may result in the decision being reversed,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Israelis and Palestinians, with assistance from the State Department, were still haggling over a joint document. “Efforts are still going on, but there is not much time left (to reach an agreement on the joint document,” Ahmed Qorie, chief Palestinian negotiator.
