A Shaky Mideast Peace Conference

The Bush administration's drive to hold a Middle East peace conference by year end in Annapolis, Md., is a worthy effort but is encountering serious difficulties on the ground in the Middle East, says a senior European diplomat.

The official, speaking on background today, took a supportive but skeptical tone about a major diplomatic push led by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is returning to the region next week for more talks. The European diplomat said that Israeli and Palestinian officials have not yet been able to come to terms over a joint statement of principles laying out future peace steps—a cornerstone of such a peace conference.

The official said that if the two sides can arrive at an agreement in time for the conference, the other invited countries could provide a formal expression of support for it. Still, the official is concerned that "in the end, it could be a conference about procedure." That still would have value, the official said, because, "in the Middle East, it's always good to have a process that goes on ... . It's better than nothing."

However, the diplomat said it would be better to be more ambitious in sketching out the contours of a peace agreement than the administration has been.

"We think the time is ripe to take a bolder initiative," the official said. A failure in the process, said the official, would strengthen the radical Islamist movement Hamas, which is in control of the Gaza Strip. "Hamas would have a field day," the official said. But the progress has been slowed, the official said, by political problems facing Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. "Both are weak, but they both seem ready to go ahead," said the official.

—Thomas Omestad