By Sunday night, Israeli and Palestinian Authority negotiating teams were still unable to come up with a joint statement for the Annapolis conference on Tuesday, despite weeklong last-ditch efforts.
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, chief negotiator for Israel, met for unscheduled talks with PA chief negotiator Ahmed Qurei (Abu Ala) in a Washington hotel Sunday night to try again to reach an agreement, but without success.
Both Livni and Qurei met with U.S Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice for a dinner meeting following their talks. The three were slated to meet once more on Monday for another last-ditch attempt to hammer out a joint declaration between Israel and the PA. Each will also work with the others to coordinate their individual statements for Tuesday's conclave.
The PA team is not optimistic that the conference will bring any changes in its relationship with the Jewish State, with one aide noting that Israeli leaders are themselves not of one mind about its participation in the process.
"The Israeli negotiating team isn't serious," said Nabil Abu Rudeineh, a senior aide to PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen). "You can't reach an agreement when the Israelis are divided amongst themselves."
A second Abbas aide, Nabil Sha'ath, was slightly more positive about the potential for progress toward initiation of final status talks following the summit, citing a poll showing that 70 percent of the PA population supports its presence at the summit.
Sha'ath told reporters the PA is hoping to complete final status talks with Israel before U.S. President George W. Bush's term of office ends in January 2009. Bush is also hoping to see his "vision of two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side by side in peace and security" by the time he leaves office.
The PA is presently aiming to come away from the conference with a joint declaration commitment by Israel, the U.S. and the PA to carry out the U.S.-authored Road Map plan.
Sha'ath said his team is hoping to secure a commitment from Israel to immediately implement the first stage of the plan, which calls for freezing all construction and expansion of Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, destroying "illegal" outposts and removing security checkpoints on roads.
Sha'ath made no mention of the PA's obligation to dismantle terrorist infrastructure and completely halt all terrorist activity that emanates from areas under its control – the other requirement of the first stage of the Road Map plan.
The PA also plans to demand that Israel commit itself to a specific timetable for final status talks within the framework of the remaining phases of the Road Map plan.