Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said ahead of his participation in a Middle East peace summit on Tuesday that the United States had promised that negotiations would be concluded within a year.
Speaking to the Saudi-owned Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper, Prince Saud said the kingdom had decided to attend the meeting in Annapolis, Maryland because it would address core issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict as well as including the Syrian and Lebanese tracks. "The important factor is the placement of a deadline for negotiations so they do not become endless and this is what the American government hosting the conference has promised, that the time period does not exceed one year," the newspaper quoted the Saudi minister as saying.
"We felt from the United States and the international Quartet some encouraging assurances on following up the negotiations through specific mechanisms and reciprocal commitments among all the active parties."
Annapolis "is a crossroads in the history of the Middle East conflict, especially in addressing the roots of the conflict and its core issues," the Arabic daily further quoted Prince Saud as saying.
