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