The United States hopes key Arab nations, including Syria, will attend a Mideast peace conference this fall hosted by President George W. Bush, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said here on Sunday.
Speaking to reporters after a meeting of the Quartet of key international players promoting Mideast peace, Rice said: "We would hope that the invitations would include the members of the Arab follow-up committee."
The committee members are Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen.
Of all the countries, only Egypt and Jordan have diplomatic relations with Israel.
Rice said that the forthcoming Middle East peace conference will be an opportunity to move towards a settlement of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict, which "we should not miss."
"I think there is a sense of momentum in support of the Palestinians and the Israelis in their efforts to end the conflict," she said.
Though the road ahead is very difficult, Rice said there has been a lot of commitment and hopefully this time they will succeed.
The diplomatic group of the Quartet, which includes the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, has been making efforts for years to promote the stalled negotiation between the Palestinian authorities and Israel.
Source: Xinhua
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