U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is to announce at a UN meeting here late Sunday an American plan for Mideast peace conference, a senior U.S. official said.
Rice will outline ideas for the conference to representatives of the diplomatic group known as the Quartet - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia, the official said.
In addition to Israel and the Palestinians, according to the official, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen are to be invited to attend the unscheduled conference in the United States.
Of all the countries, only Egypt and Jordan have diplomatic relations with Israel.
The forthcoming Mideast conference will be "serious and substantive," focusing on resolving the conflict's core issues, the U.S. official said, apparently referring to skepticism from Arab countries.
Many Arab states, including Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, have said that it will be meaningless to hold such a conference unless it has clear goals.
Source: Xinhua
|