An adviser to President Abbas threatened yesterday saying that President Abbas will not attend the Middle East peace conference sponsored by the United States to be held in November in case Israel continues to reject to hold negotiations on a binding agreement that can lead to a final peace agreement. Nimer Hammad, the political adviser to President Abbas, said the President will not attend the conference if there are no guarantees on reaching a core agreement, pointing out that in that case it would be better if the conference is not held. He added: In that case also all Arabs will not attend the conference and not only Abbas. The threat comes one day before the visit of US Secretary of State Rice to the region in a tour to last three days during which she will build up on the preparatory talks held between Abbas and Olmert before holding the conference.

Nabil Amro, the media adviser to President Abbas, said the statements of Israeli PM Olmert on the Middle East peace conference will create a major crisis in the region. He added: the statements of Olmert are not required now especially that everyone is busy working to prepare for the conference next fall and the statements of Olmert preempting the conference with such statements means a failure of the conference before it even convenes. Amro said: the Palestinian viewpoint is very clear on the fall conference which must be a conference for solutions and not show off and for real peace that the Palestinian citizens and Arabs can feel and see on real grounds. This was the goal of the conference and all Arab parties must participate in addition to the parties concerned with the peace process; we don’t want a conference to end up with a declaration of a statement or a non-binding declaration of intentions; no, we want the conference to lead to a framework agreement and working groups that implement the solution on the ground and not re-start talk on issues that we already exhausted hundreds and thousands of hours in during the negotiations. On the delay by the Israeli government to release 100 Palestinian prisoners in the first week of the month of Ramadan as promised by Olmert to Abbas in their last meeting, Amro said: not releasing prisoners is a regretful matter and is a kind of evasion. If Olmert wants to create a positive atmosphere with the Palestinians, the detainees create this atmosphere and releasing them brings in the idea of peace to every home and if this is a difficult case for Olmert, the Palestinian side then has doubts if he can deliver on matters more important than this.

Published at Al Quds NewsPaper on September 18, 2007