RIYADH (AFP) — Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas discussed a planned Middle East peace conference in the United States with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia on Friday and voiced pessimism about its prospects, a Palestinian diplomat said.
During talks at the king's ranch near Riyadh, Abbas said the Palestinians "are so far unhappy with the Israeli position, because the Israelis have not offered something that could ensure the success of the conference," the Palestinian ambassador in Riyadh, Jamal al-Shobaki, told AFP.
Abbas told Abdullah that "the United States must step in and put pressure on Israel, obliging it to comply with the terms of reference of the peace process, namely the (internationally drafted) roadmap, the Arab peace initiative and UN resolutions," Shobaki said.
He said the Saudi monarch agreed that "Israel has so far not shown a serious response that could contribute to the success of the conference," expected to be held later this year in Annapolis, Maryland.
Abbas paid a brief visit to oil powerhouse Saudi Arabia as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators conduct intensive talks in a bid to hammer out a joint declaration outlining a solution to the Middle East conflict which they hope to present at Annapolis.
Riyadh has declined to confirm its attendance at the meeting unless the core issues of the conflict are discussed in a bid to kickstart Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, which have been stalled for seven years.
King Abdullah told BBC television at the end of October that the Annapolis meeting would be a failure unless "serious efforts" were made to satisfy all the parties.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said in September it is doubtful his country will attend the conference if it is not comprehensive and if it does not tackle core issues of the Middle East conflict.
Abbas's secular Fatah party has been engaged in a bloody power struggle with Hamas since the Islamist movement routed its forces in the Gaza Strip in mid-June, resulting in the dismissal of the Hamas-led unity government and a new Western-backed government being formed in the West Bank.
Thw writ of Abbas's Palestinian Authority is now effectively confined to scattered autonomous areas of the Israeli-occupied West Bank.
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