By DPA
Jerusalem : Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni called on Arab countries Sunday to join “without conditions” the upcoming international conference on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict at Annapolis in the US.
Stressing that the conference was only a beginning, she told a news conference with French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner that the role of the Arab world was “to support the moderates in the Palestinian authority”.
The conference, announced in July by President Bush, is to be held in Annapolis, Maryland at the end of this month.
Key Arab states, notably Saudi Arabia, are still to announce officially whether they will attend, but Israel and the US see their presence as giving legitimacy to the renewed Israeli-Palestinian peace process.
Livni said that the success of Annapolis will be that it is launching an Israeli-Palestinian dialogue.
The Israeli-Palestinian peace process has been stuck for the past seven years, since the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising in September 2000.