Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Heartening Annapolis Details   [Noah Pollak]

This just came over the transom from State:

On November 27, the United States will host Israeli Prime Minister Olmert,
Palestinian Authority President Abbas, along with the Members of the
Quartet, the Members of the Arab League Follow-on Committee, the G-8, the
permanent members of the UN Security Council, and other key international
actors for a conference at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
Secretary Rice will host a dinner the preceding evening here in Washington,
where President Bush will deliver remarks. President Bush and the Israeli
and Palestinian leaders will deliver speeches to open the formal conference
in Annapolis.

The following countries and groups have been invited:

Algeria
Arab League Secretary General
Bahrain
Brazil
Canada
China
Egypt
EU Commission
EU High Rep
EU Pres Portugal
France
Germany
Greece
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mauritania
Morocco
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Poland
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sudan
Sweden
Syria
Quartet Special Envoy Tony Blair
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
UNSYG
Yemen

Observers:
IMF
World Bank

It's a relief to see that Pakistan has been invited — certainly right now the Pakistani government is ideally positioned to give its undivided attention to Palestine. If al Qaeda takes Islamabad between now and the conference, will Condi withdraw the invitation? And perhaps the Syrians will pledge to only kill three Lebanese politicians for the remainder of the calendar year. Could Iraq be called upon to redirect some of its contractors rebuilding schools in Anbar to rebuild the schools in Nablus, so they may again one day teach nine-year-olds to worship suicide murder? Will the Sudanese offer their Janjaweed commandos to conduct West Bank counterterrorism seminars? So many historic opportunities, so little time.

11/20 08:48 PMShare