Tariq Alhomayed, Editor-in-Chief of Asharq Alawsat, offers up his ideas about why Saudi Arabia has agreed to attend the Annapolis Peace Conference. Scheduled to start tomorrow, the conference is intended to move the issue of resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to some significant degree. The Saudis think that is possible—and necessary.

The Saudis in Annapolis
Tariq Alhomayed

A non-Saudi official asked me during a telephone conversation a few days ago; “do you think the Saudis will actually not participate in the Annapolis summit? Brother Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas) was right when he said that Annapolis was not for normalization… What is the story?”

I answer that I could not speak on behalf of all Saudis, but I could analyze the situation stating that, in addition to what was published in the American press and specifically in the “Washington Post” about the existence of Saudi conditions and the information issued by Washington confirming these Saudi conditions, then I must say that it is clear that Saudis are played the attendance game with a great deal of diplomatic professionalism; similar to a basketball game, where diplomacy will be used until the final millisecond of the game.

Despite the conference date drawing near and the Saudis leaving the door open to speculation regarding their attendance or absence; I had always considered it more likely that Saudis would attend the conference if some conditions were met. Abu Mazen’s words are true, Annapolis is not in a state for normalization and sitting on the negotiating table in Annapolis is much easier than sitting on the Madrid Conference negotiating table in the nineties.

And there is a need for Saudi attendance since Saudis had presented their own “Peace initiative” and Israel should never win the game because of Saudi or Arab absence, especially if the objective behind such conferences is to score points. It is enough to remember the Wye River negotiations and what had been said and what’s still being said in this regard.
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