Mona Ziade
Daily Star staff

US and European envoys are scrambling to lure Arabs and Israelis to an international conference next month, but the principal antagonists are reluctant to commit themselves to the last-ditch effort to resuscitate the moribund peace process.
None of the players has stepped forth and openly rejected Western pressures to get the parley off the ground by the end of July. To the contrary, they have all endorsed the concept.
But the Arabs and Israelis disagree on the composition and goals of the talks, patterned after the 1991 Madrid Conference, where the absence of a timetable and an agenda have been cited as the main causes for its failure to achieve concrete results.
Syrian President Bashar Assad on Monday discussed regional issues with EU Foreign Policy chief Javier Solana.
Separately, William Burns, US assistant secretary of state for Near East affairs, consulted with Jordanian Foreign Minister Marwan Moasher.
Speaking to reporters after the one-hour meeting in Damascus, Solana said the talks focused on “the situation in the region and analyzed the possibility of putting together (an) initiative to mobilize the political process.”
“The time is ripe for an initiative of political nature,” he said, adding that “before the end of the month of July something new may be put forward.”
He did not elaborate.
Asked about Syria’s participation in the proposed international peace conference, Solana said: “Any peace initiative should be comprehensive.”
“It is impossible to dream of a peace process in the region without Syria and Lebanon,” he added.
Assad said he welcomed the intervention of the international community, particularly the EU, in finding a solution to the seemingly intractable Arab-Israeli conflict. But he also expressed concerns about the direction of negotiations.
“Peace negotiations must not be drawn out and we must not waste time on negotiations without any objective,” he said.
Solana, who in Israel on Sunday called for a peace conference no later than July, appeared Monday to play down the importance of such a gathering.
“A conference would be a good idea but it is not the only possibility. What is important is to have an initiative to bring the situation out of the present status and bring the peace process forward,” he said in Damascus.
He also addressed strong objections from Arab leaders over convening any such conference while Israeli troops circle Palestinian towns and dart in and out on a daily basis. Arab states have called for the Israeli military to withdraw from positions they have occupied during the 20-month-old intifada.
“Nobody said that a political initiative will take place before the withdrawal of the Israeli troops from around the big cities,” the EU envoy said.
Solana was upbeat over his talks with Assad, adding that there had also been movement in the matter of four Israelis abducted in 2000 by Hizbullah.
His bid to entice Syria’s participation in a conference runs against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s insistence that only “moderate” Arab countries should attend such a summit.
Saudi Arabia, which has gained center stage in efforts to
pull the region from the brink of war, told Solana on Sunday that the peace initiative authored by Crown Prince Abdullah would have to be the platform for any future negotiations.
The blueprint, now endorsed as the Arab Peace Initiative, offers Israel “normal relations” with its Arab neighbors in exchange for a withdrawal from the territories occupied in 1967.
“The Saudis are insisting that the Arab peace plan should be at the core of any move,” Agence France Presse quoted an Arab diplomat as saying in Riyadh after Abdullah’s talks on Sunday with Solana.
“It has now become a necessity to force Israel to accept the peace plan and implement it. The plan is backed by Europeans, Americans and Arabs,” the diplomat added.
Solana met Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal before flying on to Syria later Monday. From Damascus, he moved on to Jordan, just as Burns wrapped up his talks there and traveled to Saudi Arabia.
Significantly, the intense diplomatic activity coincides with June 5, anniversary of the beginning of 1967 war in which Israel captured the West Bank, Gaza and Arab East Jerusalem ­ the disputed territory where the Palestinians want to establish their independent homeland.
While Burns was continuing his shuttle diplomacy, Solana was expected to fly to Brussels after his stop in Amman, the last leg of a tour, which last week also included the Palestinian territories and Lebanon.
On arrival in Amman, Solana went straight into talks with King Abdullah.
Moasher, the Jordanian foreign minister, had told Burns that a timetable for  negotiations was necessary before a peace conference is to convene.
Moasher met Burns a day after the US envoy held talks with King Abdullah and insisted that Washington wanted to hold a peace conference this summer.
“Moasher stressed the importance of focusing on the political track to solve the current crisis and said that a general framework and timetable were necessary before going to the conference,” Amman’s official Petra news agency reported.
The Jordanian foreign minister also echoed King Abdullah’s insistence that all actions to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be based on UN resolutions and the Arab peace plan.
“We must have a timetable … in order for all of us to ensure that this time we will reach the end of the journey,” Moasher said.
“And that is the eradication of Israeli occupation and the establishment of a Palestinian state,” he added. “We must specify all this before going to any conference or gathering.”
In talks in Paris on Monday with French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa echoed Moasher’s view.
“For a political solution, one must build a dialogue by way of an international conference,” de Villepin said in response.
But Moussa said that such a meeting requires serious preparation, and would likely not be held any time soon.
“There is no question of holding a conference in two or three weeks,” Moussa said. “To do so would be to put on an act,” the former Egyptian foreign minister argued. “If we want a serious conference, we will need serious preparation.” ­ With agencies

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