Ramallah, Sep 17 (DPA) Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will not attend the US-sponsored Middle East peace conference in November, if Israel does not negotiate a binding, meaningful agreement for a final peace deal, his senior aide said Monday.
“He will not go if there are no guarantees (that an agreement of substance will be reached). It’s better even not to hold it,” Abbas’ political advisor Nimr Hammad said.
“Not only him, but none of the Arabs will go,” he added.
Abbas discussed the conference with Saudi Arabian and Jordanian leaders during trips to Jeddah and Amman last week.
Since the US President George W. Bush announced the conference in July, he has insisted there will be no point in holding it unless it will have a meaningful outcome.
while Abbas wants to reach an “agreement” that would serve as a framework for a final peace deal, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert wants only what he called Sunday a “declaration of intent”.
Two months after the conference was announced, its exact date, location, agenda and participants remain unknown.
Saudi Arabia has expressed willingness in principle to attend, but has set conditions, with analysts saying it too wants a substantial outcome.
“It’s not important what term Olmert uses, what is important is the substance,” Hammad said.
In his first specific published comments on his preparatory negotiations with Abbas, Olmert said Sunday the sides were “talking about a joint statement which we hope will be the focus of the international summit in November”.
“There is a difference between an agreement on principles and a declaration of intent,” Israeli media quoted him as telling ministers from his Kadima party.