The great Annapolis Peace Conference has resulted in exactly nothing. This is not the opinion of Hamas, or Hezbollah, but the opinion of Ghaith al-Omari, legal adviser to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, who, according to CNN, declared:
The Israeli-Palestinian statement read by President Bush at the start of Tuesday's peace summit in Annapolis, Maryland, amounted to a "public relations gimmick". "The statement has a shelf life of two days," he said. "There's nothing new in it". Amazingly, he also added that "events will happen in the next two days that could change everything".
Really? Like what? Maybe the biggest Palestinian faction, Hamas, will be invited to join in the negotiation? Or maybe the USA will actually try to get Olmert to start respecting international law? Hardly.
Here is what Ismail Haniya, Prime Minister of Palestine and Hamas leader, had to say about this so-called "peace conference":
Clearly, the Palestinians have been totally betrayed (yet again) by the leaders of all the countries which showed up at this conference, including Syria, and the Palestinians now fully realize that there is only one country which cares about them and who will stand by them: Iran.
Iran, of course, is what this conference was really all about. Annapolis was little more than an Imperial get together to get everybody on the same tune, hence Syria's presence. There is no other possible explanation for the truly bizarre Syrian idea of sending diplomats to talk peace with Israel right after being bombed, however unsuccessfully and uselessly, by the Israeli Air Force. No - Syria showed up with the sole aim to be told by the Empire's representatives how they need to behave when the aggression against Iran takes place, and that the Syrians better listen, or else...
Sure - at the end of the conference some kind of grand statement will be made and everybody will declare it a historic first step. Still, besides an official Syrian sell-out there is very little that this conference will achieve. Except maybe one thing maybe:
Annapolis will be yet another colossal Neocon miscalculation. By 'squeezing' all the Imperial stooges of the Middle-East into one room for a photo op, the Neocons are literally pushing the Palestinians into the warm embrace of Tehran who now stands alone in defense of the basic right of the Palestinian people. At times one could be forgiven for wondering whether the Neocons are not paid agents of Iran's Ministry of Intelligence (just kidding).
The Neocons' short-sighted policies removed Iran's two worst enemies (Saddam and the Taliban) and essentially handed Iraq over to Iran. Likewise, in Afghanistan, the real power behind the Gucci-wearing "Mayor of Kabul", Karzai, are Iran's Tadjik, Uzbek and Hazara warlords (the other power behind them is Russia). In Lebanon, by forcing the Syrian's to withdraw and with the utterly insane war of 2006 the Neocons have made Hezbollah the most popular and powerful force in the country. Thanks to the GWOT (Global War on Terror) oil prices are through the roof, which greatly helps Iran (not to mention Russia and Venezuela). Now the Neocons are pushing the Sunni Hamas and the rest of the Palestinians who are not doing the bidding of Olmert straight into Iran's sphere of influence. It also makes Iran (and Hezbollah) look heroically noble in the eyes of "Muslim street' all over the Middle-East.
Right now it looks like the circle is closing in on Tehran, but after the Empire suffers yet another strategic defeat in its war against Iran (and that is inevitable as I explained in a previous article) it will become clear that the Annapolis Conference was just another strategic blunder of a clueless and increasingly hapless Empire.