VZCZCXYZ0009
OO RUEHWEB
DE RUEHSO #0954 3371213
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
O 031213Z DEC 07 ZDK
FM AMCONSUL SAO PAULO
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC IMMEDIATE 7722
INFO RHEHNSC/NATIONAL SECURITY COUNCIL WASHDC IMMEDIATE
RUEHBR/AMEMBASSY BRASILIA PRIORITY 8855
RUEHRI/AMCONSUL RIO DE JANEIRO PRIORITY 8472
RUCPDOC/USDOC WASHDC 2979
UNCLAS SAO PAULO 000954
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE INR/R/MR; IIP/R/MR; WHA/PD
DEPT PASS USTR
USDOC 4322/MAC/OLAC/JAFEE
E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: KMDR OPRC OIIP ETRD BR
SUBJECT: MEDIA REACTION: MIDDLE EAST: ANNAPOLIS PEACE CONFERENCE;
SAO PAULO
"One Year For Peace"
Center-right national circulation daily O Estado de S. Paulo
editorialized (12/1): "In the USG-sponsored meeting between Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas,
the search for peace resumed the Road Map, a 2003 initiative that
seemed forgotten. Responding to a President Bush's request, the two
leaders agreed to start negotiations, under U.S. supervision, aimed
at a final agreement within one year.... The most significant
[event] was the presence in the peace conference of Saudi
Arabia's Foreign Minister, Prince Saud al Faigal.... Riyadh had
never been genuinely sympathetic with the Palestinians. Its
opposition to Israel's existence was always merely religious.... The
Saudis are far from ignoring that the hidden element in Annapolis
was Iran. The Iraqi catastrophe warned the Americans against
launching a unilateral confrontation with Tehran's Shiite regime....
No Islamic government will support the neutralization of the
presumable Iranian threat while the occupation of Palestine
persists.... The US is the world's only political power capable of
making Israelis and Palestinians coexist in two viable, safe and
legitimate states.... Perhaps Washington has not yet realized that
US foreign policy's first priority is peace between Arabs and Jews,
because nothing is more essential than that to fight terrorism."
White