WEF conference ends with hopes of convening in Bethlehem (Roundup)

By Abdul Jalil Mustafa May 20, 2007, 16:43 GMT

Dead Sea, Jordan - The World Economic Forum (WEF) wound up a three-day conference on the Middle East at the Dead Sea resort Sunday by cherishing the hope of convening such a meeting some day in Bethlehem after peace between Israel and its Arab neighbours becomes a reality.

'As we conclude this meeting, we hope that in one of the years ahead we will be able to hold a similar one in Bethlehem to celebrate peace, reconciliation, justice and progress,' Klaus Schwab, WEF founder and Executive Chairman, said at the closing session.

He said the conference, which convened under the theme 'Putting Diversity to Work,' had the primary aim of creating 'dialogue and better understanding' to pave the ground for the dawn of peace.

The meeting, which was attended by about 1,200 high level officials, politicians and business and community leaders from 56 countries, kicked off on Friday with an appeal by Jordan's King Abdullah II to states of the region to make 2007 a year of peace.

'This is our year of opportunity: Opportunity to end violence, opportunity to make peace, opportunity to build the regional economic power-house of tomorrow,' the monarch said.

However, at a plenary session earlier Sunday, the Arab and Israeli sides seemed as far apart as ever, despite a promise by the Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres that his government would shortly send a written reply to the Arab peace initiative.

Peres said that Israel intended to send 'as soon as possible' a written reply to the Arab League and Saudi Arabia, which originally proposed the initiative in 2002.

'This is the position of the government of Israel. We are ready to make a counter-proposal, and we are ready to sit down with whomever you want - the Saudis, the Arab League - and we shall try to air out the differences between us,' Peres told the audience.

On the podium with Peres was the Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa who cast doubt on the possibility of Israel presenting anything new to the Arab side.

'We will wait to see if they put something serious on the table,' Moussa said.

'The Arab countries have adopted a unanimous and collective initiative offering the hand of peace to Israel, but we have received no counter offer, just gestures,' he added.

He referred to a proposal by the Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that he and other Arab leaders, including King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, get together to discuss the Arab blueprint.

Olmert's offer was previously rejected by Moussa as a 'trick' through which the Jewish state sought to achieve normalization of ties with leading Arab powers before it makes territorial concessions.

The Arab plan, which was readopted at the last Arab summit in Riyadh at the end of March, envisaged extending recognition by all Arab states to Israel after it pulls out from all Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 war, including East Jerusalem, and finding an 'acceptable' solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

The WEF sessions were also the scene of wrangling between Iran and the United States over who was behind the security failure in Iraq.

'We have evidence that Iran is participating in destabilizing Iraq,' US Senator Orrin G Hatch said.

The charge was denied by Iranian Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Mohammad Larijani, who contended that Iran had a genuine interest in a peaceful Iraq.

Iraqi Vice President Tareq al-Hashmei, a Sunni politician, alluded to Iran and the allied Iraqi Shiite militias, when he accused certain neighbours of Iraq of waging fighting inside his country 'by proxy.'

Away from the political front, Schwab singled out the establishment of a Palestinian-Israeli business council and the launching of a ten-billion-dollar human development fund as the conference's two major achievements.

According to a WEF statement, the business council which was launched by a key group of Palestinian and Israeli business leaders 'will advance the relationship between the two business communities and, ultimately, assist the region to move towards durable peace and coexistence.'

The fund, an endowment by the Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashed al-Maktoum, aims at advancing the educational process in Arab countries and narrowing the knowledge gap between Arab and developed countries.

At Jordan's level the immediate achievement was the signing of 24 projects with a total value of 2.5 billion dollars.