US promoting an international conference on Palestine, to strengthen Abbas and weaken Hamas

The Israeli newspaper Maariv reported yesterday (Sunday November 19) that there are secret talks going on between Washington and Tel Aviv aimed at setting up an international conference to try and revive the Palestinian peace process, based on the "road-map". The following is from a summary in Al-Quds al-Arabi, which it in turn attributes it to the Tel Aviv bureau of UPI.

A major US aim is to improve its image in the Middle East. The conference would include Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, in addition to the Palestinians and Israelis, and the overall concept for the US is to make this part of its hoped-for alliance of "moderate Arab states and Israel". For road-map fans, the technical aim of the conference will be implementation of phase two of the read-map, involving establishment of a Palestinian state with temporary borders. This would be followed by more "convergence" (getting rid of Israeli settlements outside the proposed borders), and eventually a Palestinian state with permanent borders.

The report says this is going to involve additional efforts to fend off Hamas and Hizbullah, and to strengthen Abbas with "abundant financing and power". The report says Saudi Arabia has already agreed not only to attent the conference, but also to provide a lot of financing for Abbas.

Finally, according to this summary, the US is described as concerned about weakness in the regimes of Prime Minister Siniora in Lebanon and president Abbas in Palestine, and this was a motivating factor for the Palestine-conference initiative.