Mideast peace talks may be held in Moscow

Published: Nov. 29, 2007 at 11:42 PM

MOSCOW, Nov. 29 (UPI) -- The next conference on a peace settlement in the Middle East may be in Moscow, it was reported.

Russia and the United States have begun tentative plans for a conference early next year, The Washington Post reported. Officials from both countries and other states involved said one hope is that the Moscow conference would include direct talks between Israel and Syria.

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told reporters after the Annapolis, Md., conference this week that Syria's presence at the conference is leading him to rethink his position that any talks on the Golan Heights should be delayed.

The Bush administration hopes the Annapolis conference is the beginning of a process, the newspaper said.

"Our belief is that if the two parties can make progress on the Israeli-Palestinian track, that that could possibly lead to openings along other tracks," State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. "We are going to try to encourage parties on both sides -- the Arab side as well as the Israeli side -- to take advantage of any potential openings that they see there. It's going to be up to them, in large part, to determine what sort of energy they devote to those."

© 2007 United Press International, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Order reprints



Additional News Stories
UPI NewsTrack Business
Crude oil prices slide Tuesday
UPI NewsTrack Health and Science News
Grain futures close mixed Tuesday
Iowa QB Stanzi out with ankle injury
Billy Martin on Hall of Fame ballot
UPI NewsTrack Quirks in the News
fark
Ice-floe rescuers in Canada need to be rescued by ice-floe rescuers, who need to be rescued by ice-floe...
Diapernaut gets a year of probation
Google to Murdoch: "If publishers want their content to be removed from Google News specifically...
Pre-paralegals from some community college defeat pre-laws from Yale, Villanova, Boston College,...
"Anyone who found a block of cheese is asked to contact police."
Marine reservist attacks Greek Orthodox priest with a tire iron, then calls police to brag he's...