FROM ISRAEL TODAY/ARAB PRESS

Mixed Reaction to Annapolis Conference


Regional Arab media insists that US-hosted peace summit will end in violent failure unless Washington follows up by extracting Israeli compliance with Arab demands.

There was mixed reaction in the Arab and Islamic world to the prospects for peace after the Annapolis Conference. Syria, which hopes the US will pressure Israel to hand back the strategic Golan Heights, said the conference could be a turning point.

Al-Baath, the newspaper of Syria’s ruling party, said Annapolis could “achieve a lot if the US decides to restore its supposed [impartial] role and make an effort to cover up the defeats, bitterness and catastrophes of its foreign policy.” The Syrian government newspaper Tishrin said the conference was a “chance to test the seriousness of the US administration to make peace.”

Some analysts say the positive comments were a way for Syria to defend its attendance at Annapolis, which was harshly criticized by its hard-line allies like Iran and Hamas.

Others warned of the consequences if expectations are not met.

“What will follow Annapolis? High hopes, then a feeling that something will happen, followed by dashed hopes and an introduction to a new explosion,” columnist Shafiq al-Ghabra wrote in the Kuwaiti daily Al-Jarida. “Does the United States realize how serious it is to raise hopes and dash them and the effect of all that on violence in the Middle East?”

Iran denounced the conference as a failure.

“It is impossible that the Zionist regime will survive,” Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on state-run television. “Collapse is in the nature of this regime because it has been created on aggression, lies, oppression and crime.”

The Palestinian Authority (PA), which is ostensibly negotiating “peace” with Israel, seemed to agree.

A day after the Annapolis Conference an information clip produced by the PA Central Bureau of Statistics appeared on government-run Palestinian Television, which is controlled by western-backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. It showed a map of Israel and the Palestinian territories painted in the colors and image of the Palestinian flag, symbolizing Israel turned into a Palestinian state.

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