The Annapolis Conference and Beyond: Working Toward Middle East Peace

“We meet to lay the foundation for the establishment of a new nation – a democratic Palestinian state that will live side by side with Israel in peace and security. We meet to help bring an end to the violence that has been the true enemy of the aspirations of both the Israelis and the Palestinians.”
–– President George W. Bush

The Annapolis Conference was convened by President George W. Bush on November 27, 2007 at the U.S. Naval Academy. It followed up on the President’s July 16 speech calling on the international community to provide diplomatic support for Israeli-Palestinian bilateral negotiations and to review progress on Palestinian institution building.

CONFERENCE OUTCOMES

The Annapolis Conference:

• Launched continuing and intensive bilateral negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians for the establishment of a Palestinian state and the realization of Israeli-Palestinian peace.
• Demonstrated broad international support for the courageous efforts of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

JOINT UNDERSTANDING BETWEEN ISRAEL AND PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY

The two parties agreed to:

• Work to bring an end to decades of conflict and promote a new era of peace.
• Engage in vigorous, ongoing and continuous negotiations, making every effort to conclude an agreement by the end of 2008.
• Commit to immediately implement their respective obligations under the performance-based Road Map, with the United States, at the parties’ request, monitoring and judging the parties’ performance on Road Map implementation.
• President Abbas and Prime Minister Olmert to meet on a bi-weekly basis to follow up on the negotiations.

ROLE OF UNITED STATES AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

While the Israelis and Palestinians will be doing the difficult negotiating, the two parties can count on the active engagement of the United States and the strong support of the international community.

On November 28, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appointed General James Jones as Special Envoy for Middle East Security. General Jones will work with Israelis and Palestinians on the full range of security issues and will engage with other key countries to support Middle East security.

PARIS DONORS CONFERENCE

At the request of the Palestinian leadership, France will hold an international donors conference for the Palestinian Territories on December 17, in Paris. It is being organized in cooperation with the Palestinian Authority, Quartet Representative Tony Blair, Norway, and the European Commission. The conference will aim to improve the daily lives of Palestinians as quickly as possible, and to assist in building the institutional and economic capacity that will be the foundation of a viable and prosperous Palestinian state.

CONFERENCE PARTICIPANTS INCLUDED:

United States	EU High Representative	Morocco	Slovenia
Israel	EU President-Portugal	Netherlands	South Africa
Palestinian Authority	France	Norway	Spain
Algeria	Germany	Oman	Sudan
Arab League Secretary General	India	Organization of the Islamic Conference	Sweden
Austria	Indonesia	Pakistan	Syria
Bahrain	Italy	Poland	Tunisia
Brazil	Japan	Qatar	Turkey
Canada	Jordan	Quartet Representative Tony Blair	United Arab Emirates
China	Lebanon	Russia	United Kingdom
Denmark	Malaysia	Saudi Arabia	Vatican
Egypt	Mauritania	Senegal	Yemen
EU Commission	Mexico		World Bank and IMF as observers

“The Annapolis conference has thus been the beginning, not the end, of a new, serious and substantive effort to achieve peace in the Middle East… The international community will fully support the path the parties have chosen. President Bush and I have pledged the unwavering support of the United States to realize this goal.” –– Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice