Arab nations are questioning why they should attend the planned Annapolis conference if the Palestinian Authority (PA) and Israel cannot reach an agreement on a joint statement before the summit. "If the two concerned parties are going to the meeting without a statement they agree on, why are we and 40 other countries going?" Saudi Arabian government advisor Mohammed Zolfa told The New York Times. "We don’t want a conference that only repeats what’s already been said, or a conference where only pictures are taken," he added.
Arabs also are worried that the United States is trying to use the conference to gain Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, a move that would in effect deny the Arab demands that millions of foreign Arabs be allowed to immigrate to Israel.
Israel and PA officials still are trying to hammer out an agreement, which the Bush administration sees as critical for the Annapolis meeting to succeed.