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Abbas calls for clear agenda
30/09/2007 19:28 - (SA)
Cairo - Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas echoed Arab leaders on Sunday when he insisted that a clear and specific agenda had to be prepared ahead of a US-proposed peace conference in November.
Abbas spoke to reporters after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo to coordinate Arab positions ahead of a proposed meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Abbas told newsmen: "From now and until mid-November, the agenda should be clearly set out because more than 36 countries will attend the conference. This big gathering requires us to go there with a definite document to pave the way later for the detailed negotiations."
Warned about the lack of an agenda
Several times since President George W Bush called for a Middle East conference to re-invigorate the moribund Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Arab leaders warned about the lack of an agenda, emphasising that the conference had be more than a photo opportunity.
Abbas and Olmert have been meeting to work out proposals for the event, set tentatively for mid-November, but so far there have been few concrete results. Israel preferred to focus on general outlines and the Palestinians pressed for detailed talks on the main issues.
Abbas said he had held talks with Olmert five times and "discussed all the issues of interest to us, but until now, we cannot say that we are negotiating. We are exploring these issues in preparation for the meetings of the delegations that will start on Tuesday."
- AP
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