Conference in Tehran examined challenges facing ME peace process after Annapolis confab

The conference, co-held by the Qods News Agency and the Islamic Azad University, received a warm welcome from experts and analysts in Middle East issues from home and abroad.

ME suffers lack of ground for peace

Sayed Ali Akbar Mohtashamipour, Secretary General of the International Conference in Support of the Intifada and Qods said Sunday that the Middle East suffers lack of ground to restore peace.

He made the remarks to a conference in Tehran on challenges facing the Middle East process especially after the Annapolis confab in the United States.

Mohtashamipour regretted that the Annapolis confab failed to make any real reference to the Palestinian problems while the issue has always been on agenda any time Arab leaders have ever met.

"Peace will not take place unless the rights of the wronged side are restored and the bullying side abandons mood. Otherwise, peace would prove illogical," he added.

The prominent activist believed that hopes for peace were dashed as there was no balance of power between the feuding sides.

Mohtashamipour also blamed Israeli reluctance for peace and the interference from outside, especially the US as non-productive for the peace process.

"America wishes to witness relentless conflict in the Middle East in order to secure its own interests and sell its arms and dominance to the Arab states," he noted.

"Palestinians are victims of the colonial bloc of Zionism. The Palestinian nation have a 6000 year history of residence in Palestine. However, a 60 year old regime is bent to infringe on their rights," Mohtashamipour added.

Prominent activist denounces Annapolis outcomes

He made the remarks to a conference in Tehran on challenges facing the Middle East process especially after the Annapolis confab in the United States.

The conference was co-held by the Qods News Agency and the Islamic Azad University.

"The Israeli demand means that a nation (Palestinian) whose population would become equal to that of the Jews before 2020 are deprived of their citizenship rights," Rahmandoust added.

"The Annapolis meeting not only could not resolve the Palestinian problem. It also opened a new road of homelessness for the residents of the 1948 occupied areas," the SDPN official said.

Rahmandoust described the 'Jewish state' project as being aimed at rescuing the Zionist regime and wresting choice of struggle from the Palestinian nation.

He warned that the Annapolis meeting could make Arab leaders to take position against Palestinian resistance.

Annapolis confab took aim at roots of resistance

Hussein Rooyvaran, expert in Middle East affairs, marked Sunday the anniversary of the first Palestinian Intifada, saying that the first Intifada turned the page Palestinian history as Israel earlier was refusing to acknowledge the Palestinian entity.

He made the remarks to a conference in Tehran on challenges facing the Middle East process especially after the Annapolis confab in the United States.

"Palestinian people by choosing Hamas showed they consider resistance as the most efficient option to run the Palestinian issue," the analyst said, adding "for the same reason, the Annapolis meeting took aim at resistance and its tracks in Lebanon, Syria and Iran."

"The Annapolis conference was not aimed to resolve the Palestinian problem and instead was designed to attend to the strategic needs of the compromising Arab side which was assigned to counter resistance," he added.

Also a senior official in the pro-Palestinian NGO of the Society in Defense of the Palestinian Nation (SDPN), Rooyvaran believed that the Annapolis confab was also designed to repress the internal Palestinian protests.

"The defeat of Israel against the Lebanese Hezbollah ruined all American projects in the region," the analyst said.

Rooyvaran believed that after the Annapolis meeting, America's Great Middle East project will be replaced by a project to forge alliance among the so-called moderate forces in the Middle East against resistance and its staunchest advocate, Iran.

The one day conference on ME peace process was co-held in Tehran Sunday by the Qods News Agency and the Islamic Azad University.

It received a warm welcome from experts and analysts in Middle East issues from home and abroad.

Adel Aoun, representative of the Lebanese Amal movement and Abu Osama al-Mo'ti, representative of the Gaza-based Palestinian government (Hamas) are also among the guests of the conference.

Mojtaba Rahmandoust, Secretary General of the Society in Defense of the Palestinian Nation (SDPN) said Sunday that the Israeli call for being acknowledged as 'Jewish state' has given rise to racism after several decades.