Saudi official rules out handshake with Israelis

Source: Reuters

WASHINGTON, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia's participation in the U.S.-sponsored talks on Middle East peace was seen as a diplomatic coup for the Bush administration but the kingdom has made clear there will be no handshakes with Israeli officials.

"We are not here for theater. We are here for the serious business of making peace. We are not here to give an impression that everything is normal," Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal told reporters on Monday, on the eve of the conference to be held in Annapolis, Maryland.

"We will not do anything that will divert from the seriousness of the occasion, (such as) shaking hands to give an impression of something that is not there," he said.

Saudi Arabia had been noncommittal until last week over whether it would attend the Annapolis conference. The kingdom, which is the birthplace of Islam, has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Read more: http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N26424077.htm

This conference is going to go smoothly, isn't it? :sarcasm:

the current situation is far to profitable.

Thats it is a nutshell.

:eyes:

will be war without end simply for those profits.



Welcome to DU, Harmonicaman! :hi:

The Saudi "royals" and the Bush oil mafia are enemies of peace and civilization.

I'm not sure it means much substantially.

But does this mean that Bush isn't lending all his "heft" to this summit? Will Bush fail to solve every problem in the Middle East in a one-day summit? Can our MBA president take care of this, or not?

Faux News, which I did for 5 minutes, this summit is f*cking historic! Yay Bush!

Mz Pip
:dem:

But I cannot imagine the circumstances under which this could happen.