The Bush administration was able to declare a clean sweep on Sunday when Syria, the last Arab world holdout, announced it would attend a high-stakes West Asia peace conference in the US this week. But as 16 Arab nations and the Arab League prepared to sit down with Israel for the first time in more than a decade, Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni made it clear that they should not expect to dictate the contours of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.Livni spoke days after the Arab League members grudgingly agreed to send their foreign ministers to the much-anticipated US-hosted conference, meant to renew Israeli-Palestinian peace talks after a violent, seven-year lull in negotiations. Damascus had threatened to sit out the gathering in Annapolis, Maryland, if it did not address the Golan Heights, a strategic plateau Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 West Asia war and later annexed. And after the Arab League meeting on Friday, Syria said it would study the agenda before deciding whether to attend.On Sunday, Syria’s state-run news agency announced that Damascus would send its Deputy Foreign Minister, Faysal Mekdad, to the gathering because the Golan was added to the conference agenda. But Syria’s decision not to send Foreign Minister Walid al-Moallem appeared to indicate that Damascus was not entirely confident the conference would address its concerns over the territory.A spokesperson for Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert welcomed Syria’s decision to participate. “Israel sees as a positive development the participation of a high-ranking Syrian official in the meetings in Annapolis,” said spokesperson Miri Eisin, shortly after she arrived with Olmert in Washington.“The meetings are clearly about the Israeli-Palestinian process, but could be the beginning of new avenues to peace in the Middle East.”But Eisin and Livni disputed Syria’s account of the conference agenda, insisting the Golan was never explicitly mentioned.Livni had earlier expressed confidence that Syria would attend the meeting, reasoning that a session on the search for a comprehensive West Asia peace offered the Syrians a forum to press their position on the Golan.On the flight, Olmert restated his position that Israel would “favourably” consider negotiations with Syria if conditions ripened. Israel first wants Syria to break out of Iran’s orbit and stop harboring Palestinian and Lebanese militants opposed to the Jewish state’s existence.But Israeli officials have reported recent high-level talks between Israel and Damascus meant to sound out Syria on the prospect of resuming talks, which broke down in 2000.Arab attendance at the Annapolis summit is seen as a victory for the US, which is hoping that broad Arab participation will help bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Meanwhile, Israeli and Palestinian delegations were making a last-ditch effort in Washington to nail down an elusive joint vision of where peace talks would head after this week’s gathering.The Palestinians want the joint statement to address, at least in general terms, the core issues at the heart of the conflict with Israel — final borders, conflicting claims to Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees.Israel wants a broader and vaguer statement that would allow more room for maneuvering. It says the haggling on these issues should take place in the closed-door talks that are to begin after the conference concludes on Wednesday.
