Informed sources revealed details of the meetings expected in Washington and Annapolis as of next Monday, pointing out that these will include meetings between President Abbas, Israeli PM Olmert and US President Bush, and a meeting for the International Quartet Committee and the conference itself, and then other meetings with the US President. It should be noted that the United States changed the term for the gathering from a "meeting" to a "conference" now. The sources said the US President affirmed in the invitation letter to attend the conference that progress towards achieving the goal of peace will be the most important priority for the US Administration next year and that Annapolis Conference is the expression of the international support to the courageous efforts and will be a launching point for the negotiations that will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state and achieving Palestinian-Israeli peace according to the roadmap, promising to offer all support to these courageous steps that are needed to achieve peace.

The works of Annapolis Conference will start with individual meetings held by President Bush with President Abbas and with Israeli PM Olmert before he gathers them in a trilateral meeting. on Monday evening and this will be the same evening when US Secretary of State will host the delegations participating in the conference on a dinner to be held at the US State Department headquarters and President Bush will deliver a speech during the dinner. On the same day, Monday, the International Quartet Committee will hold a meeting at the ministerial level with the participation of Rice, Ban Ki-moon, Russian FM and Javier Solana and Portuguese FM. The meeting of the Quartet Committee will discuss what the Committee can do to support the process that will be launched after Annapolis and they are expected to talk about the mechanism needed to follow up the talks on a regular basis to maintain the momentum that will result from Annapolis Conference.

On Tuesday, the delegations will head to Annapolis where President Bush, President Abbas and PM Olmert are expected to deliver the opening speeches stressing on the importance of the negotiations process that will take place and the need for international support in line with supporting the efforts to build the Palestinian capacities. At the end of the three speeches, the conference will be closed in front of the media and the other speeches will be delivered away from the mass media. The first speaker will be the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. The end of the day will include a press conference by Rice to announce the results and in case there is a joint Palestinian-Israeli declaration, it will be also announced. On Wednesday, US President Bush will host once again in separate meetings President Abbas and PM Olmert at the White House and then the Palestinian and Israeli leaders leave the United States.

Published at Al Ayyam NewsPaper on November 22, 2007