Saudi Arabia's foreign minister is to attend next week's Middle East peace conference, he announced today, in a significant boost to the US-sponsored talks.
"I'm not hiding any secret about the Saudi position. We were reluctant until today," Saud al-Faisal told a press conference at the ongoing Arab League meeting in Cairo.
"If not for the Arab consensus we felt today, we would not have decided to go," he said. "But the kingdom would never stand against an Arab consensus, as long as the Arab position has agreed on attending, the kingdom will walk along with its brothers in one line."
The Arab League meeting has been arranged to decide whether countries will attend the peace conference due to be held in Annapolis, on the east coast of the US.
Al-Faisal confirmed that a wider Arab League group tasked with following up peace talks with Israel had agreed to attend the conference.
Saudi representation at a ministerial level was a key US goal for the meeting. Before today the kingdom had refused to say whether it would attend.
However, the fate of another US ambition, the presence of the Syrian foreign minister, remains uncertain. Syria has insisted the conference must address its demands for the return of the Israeli-held Golan Heights.
The Arab League ministers have sent a letter to the US government asking it to "explicitly" include the Golan Heights issue on the conference agenda.
The US secretary of state, Condoleezza Rice, "has promised a positive response to the request and if we receive a formal positive response, Syria will attend", said Syria's foreign minister, Walid al-Mouallem, according to the AFP news agency.
AFP also reported that the Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, told the assembled Arab leaders that talks with Israel before the conference had failed to agree on the wording of a joint declaration.
"We wanted through our negotiations to reach a joint document but unfortunately we could not agree on the wording because each side has its own point of view," said Abbas.
Al-Faisal will attend next week's meeting, but he warned today that Saudi Arabia would not take part in "theatrical" events, such as handshakes, with Israeli officials.
"We are not prepared to take part in a theatrical show, in handshakes and meetings that don't express political positions. We are going with seriousness and we work on the same seriousness and credibility," he said.
Saudi Arabia, which does not have diplomatic relations with Israel, has said the conference could become a series of photo opportunities with Israeli leaders. The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, has stressed negotiations will address core issues.
Front Page Features