Diplomats, politicians and - oh, no - press (Baltimore Sun)

[GreatAmerican]

<p>Meeting is seen as a beginning</p>

<p>[Meeting</a> is seen as a beginning – baltimoresun.com](<a href=“http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/world/bal-te.protocol26nov26,0,4145038.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout]Meeting”>http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/world/bal-te.protocol26nov26,0,4145038.story?coll=bal_tab01_layout)</p>

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Tomorrow’s Mideast peace conference, behind the walls that guard the U.S. Naval Academy campus, is surrounded by misconceptions. For starters, it’s not a negotiation.</p>

<p>No one will be locking Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas into a room, there to stay until they’ve solved some of the Middle East’s thorniest problems. Much of the arm-twisting associated with the conference will already have occurred by the time the leaders arrive in Annapolis – it’s what President Bush and the State Department have been doing for weeks, just to get them to show up…

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