Shabab Al Iraq newspaper carried an editorial Friday with the headline: "Annapolis: Another chance Arabs grant to U.S. and Israel."
It said Arab governments have been waiting for several weeks before they agreed to attend the peace conference in Annapolis, Md., this week.
The paper said Arab governments felt though Washington backed Israel, it was still the only mediator that could make a small difference. The paper said the other reason why Arab governments decided to attend the conference was because Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas told them if they didn't attend, the United States and Israel won't let enough negotiations happen, which won't allow him to go home with something.
"Some leaders considered strengthening their relationship with Washington because they realized that angering their people is safer than angering Bush's administration," the paper said.
It said Arab analysts said the main purpose of Annapolis was to ... calm the Arab conservative governments that criticized the United States for not granting enough efforts to make peace in the Middle East.
"Israel and the U.S. have reiterated the importance of involving the Arab governments that don't have relations with Israel, which added more reason that the real goal of the conference was encouraging normalization without giving Arabs something in return," the paper said.
It said analysts close to Arab governments have mentioned that Arab officials said they think they have guarantees from the United States and Israel that their efforts will be fruitful.
The paper quoted Izz Addin Shukri, of the Arab-Israeli Peace Project at the International Crisis Group, as saying, "The Saudis have waited for a long time for proof that the Israeli prime minister is serious in his peace-making efforts or ready to freeze building Israeli settlements in the West Bank."
"Ehud Olmert said publicly he won't build new settlements but he hasn't taken any step to freeze the spread of current settlements," it said.
Syria last week said it would attend because the United States agreed to its condition that the Golan Heights issue be addressed.
"Other analysts who are critical of both the U.S. and the Arab governments," the editorial added, "have suspicions on the value of the U.S. assurances that the Arab governments have received."
Shukri said the United States failed in Iraq and in its policy with Syria and Hamas, "so now it only has little credibility that local sides could easily ignore it."
It said Saudi officials didn't talk to any Israeli officials though both attend the meetings.
