November 27, 2007

The peace conference, which follows unprecedented pre-negotiations, is established to provide regional and international backing for a two state solution for the area west of the Jordan River. While the talks are primarily between Israel and the PA, on-going, secret Syrian-Israeli talks, under the auspices of Turkish intermediaries, are later revealed. Three important outcomes evolve from the conference: the Palestinians and Israelis are directly engaged in great detail about final status issues (Jerusalem, land swaps, borders, withdrawal); both sides enter and leave the conference with an understanding that a final peace between them would be based on a two-state solution; and the US reasserts its centrality in the negotiating process, at least for the time being, supplanting the role of the Quartet and the European Union.(source)