11/21/2007

News / United States Announces Annapolis Conference on Middle East. U.S. to host Olmert, Abbas, others at U.S. Naval Academy November 27

Washington – Forty-nine nations, organizations and individuals have been invited to attend the U.S.-sponsored international Middle East conference November 26-28 in Annapolis, Maryland, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack says.

"The Annapolis Conference will signal broad international support for the Israeli and Palestinian leaders' courageous efforts and will be a launching point for negotiations leading to the establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace," McCormack said at a State Department briefing November 20.

The United States will host Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, along with the members of the Quartet, which includes the United Nations, European Union, Russia and the United States, the members of the Arab League Follow-on Committee, the Group of Eight major industrialized nations, the permanent members of the U.N. Security Council, and other key international actors for a conference at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, he said.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will host a dinner the preceding evening in Washington, where President Bush will deliver remarks. Bush and the Israeli and Palestinian leaders will deliver speeches to open the formal conference in Annapolis on November 27, McCormack said.

McCormack said those invited to attend the conference are as follows:

United States
Israel
Palestinian Authority
Algeria
Arab League Secretary-General
Bahrain
Brazil
Canada
China
Egypt
European Union Commission
European Union High Representative
European Union President (Portugal)
France
Germany
Greece
India
Indonesia
Iraq
Italy
Japan
Jordan
Lebanon
Malaysia
Mauritania
Morocco
Norway
Oman
Pakistan
Poland
Qatar
Russia
Saudi Arabia
Senegal
Slovenia
South Africa
Spain
Sudan
Sweden
Syria
Quartet Special Envoy Tony Blair
Tunisia
Turkey
United Arab Emirates
United Kingdom
U.N. Secretary-General
Yemen

Observers include the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

(Distributed by the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)

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