Annapolis Opens with Last Minute Peace Accord

(27 Nov 07 - RV) With a handshake, leaders of the United States, Israel and the Palestinians agreed this evening to immediately launch peace talks with the goal of reaching a final accord by the end of 2008.
President George W. Bush made the dramatic announcement at the opening of a 44-nation Middle East peace conference, with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President
Mahmoud Abbas standing alongside him.
The accord emerged from lengthy, last-minute negotiations between the parties on a joint document meant to chart the course for negotiating the toughest "final status" issues of the conflict -- Jerusalem, borders, security and the fate of Palestinian refugees.
As the summit to secure peace in the Middle East started in Annapolis, near Washington DC,
tens of thousands of people took to the streets in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip and the West Bank, in protest against the summit.
In the West Bank police loyal to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas violently broke up demonstrations, killing one protester and seriously wounding several others.
More than 40 countries are attending the peace conference - 7 years after the last fully-fledged talks on peace between the neighbouring communities of Israel and Palestine.
The Holy See has been invited to attend the conference and will be represented by Monsignor Pietro Parolin, undersecretary for relations with states.
On Sunday, Pope Benedict XVI urged the faithful to pray that the participants at the summit find the «wisdom and courage» necessary to bring peace to the Holy Land.
Father Raed Abusalliah, a priest from the Latin patriarchate of Jerusalem spoke to us about his hopes for a positive outcome to the meeting: