By Aluf Benn, Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies
Tags: Annapolis, Saudi Arabia

Israel welcomed a decision by Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Friday to attend the upcoming Middle East peace summit, scheduled to be held in Annapolis, Maryland next week, calling it a positive development.

"We hope this is only the beginning and that we will see greater and broader Arab involvement in the peace process," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "For this process to succeed, both Arabs and Israelis will have to take bold steps."


The two or three clippers who have been followed the immense diplomatic efforts towards annapolis over the last 10 weeks...

By Aluf Benn, Barak Ravid and Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondents, and News Agencies
Tags: Annapolis, Saudi Arabia

Israel welcomed a decision by Saudi Arabia's foreign minister Friday to attend the upcoming Middle East peace summit, scheduled to be held in Annapolis, Maryland next week, calling it a positive development.

"We hope this is only the beginning and that we will see greater and broader Arab involvement in the peace process," said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev. "For this process to succeed, both Arabs and Israelis will have to take bold steps."


The two or three clippers who have been followed the immense diplomatic efforts towards annapolis over the last 10 weeks or so, and have charted the negotiations with 30+ mideast nations will welcome the news today that Syria is also to attend. Commentators from all sides while showing little hope for immediate outcomes have broadly taken the Regev line. I cannot, despite having tried my best to follow the detailed process of agenda setting understand what remotely is meant by saudi arabia's 'calling the shots' at annapolis, nor the argument that the conference is a 'disaster' for israel. Nor can I fathom out the information upon which such a startling claim is made.