Washington: Arab nations will give a new US-sponsored Middle East peace drive a chance, but are waiting for Israel to prove it is serious about ending the conflict, Arab League chief Amr Mussa said today.

"We want to give this opportunity a chance. We have some misgivings, but we are waiting to see what will happen in the next two months," Mussa told journalists here.
"During the next two months we will test the Israelis intentions to see if they are serious, or if this is just another game."

He spoke as US President George W Bush was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas at the White House to formally launch new peace talks after a seven-year hiatus. The two sides agreed at a major peace conference in Annapolis, Maryland, yesterday to immediately resume talks in a bid to reach a final peace deal by the end of 2008 and lay to rest six decades of enmity.

Arab nations have remained skeptical about why this new US-championed drive for peace should succeed, where so many other attempts have failed. But Mussa, who heads the 22-member Arab League -- most of whom do not have diplomatic relations with the Jewish state -- said Arab countries came to Annapolis "to support the Palestinians and put forward their point of view to the international community."

Source : PTI