Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit warned in a statement Monday the U.S.-sponsored Mideast summit scheduled for November 26 in Annapolis may end up having to be postponed. Aboul Gheit said in his statement, “Rushing into holding the meeting without an agreement over a substantive and positive document may damage opportunities to achieve a just peace.”
U.S. State Department officials expressed equally pessimistic predictions Monday after U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had met separately with Israeli and Palestinian Authority officials, including Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas.
Rice, who landed at Ben Gurion International Airport for a four-day visit to the region, traveled to Cairo Tuesday to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak about the summit. Rice has been trying to shepherd the Israeli Prime Minister and PA Chairman through the process of formulating such a document prior to the conference.