Special report: Mideast peace conference
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Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadineja
gives a speech on Nov.7 2007. He on Friday described the U.S. accusation
of Iran nuke program as a mistake, urging Washington to admit the
mistakes, local media reported. (Xinhua/Reuters
File Photo)
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TEHRAN, Nov. 28 (Xinhua) -- Iranian President Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad on Wednesday dismissed the U.S.-sponsored Annapolis conference on
the Middle East as "a failure," the official IRNA news agency reported.
"Even the most unintelligent people from the
political point of view will soon understand that the Annapolis conference was
already a failure," Ahmadinejad told IRNA at the end of a cabinet session.
"When the real representatives of the Palestinian
nation and the resistance groups were not attending the conference, and the
rights, votes and demands of the Palestinian nation were not recognized,
hundreds of such meetings would be futile," he said.
The Iranian president also criticized the sponsors of the
Annapolis conference, saying they were only following "political propaganda."
"They are following a political propaganda to say
that the Arab states have sit around a table with the Zionist regime,"
Ahmadinejad said, urging them to let the Arab states hold a referendum in their
own countries to see whether their nations agreed with their participation in
the conference.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in remarks
closing the Annapolis conference on the Middle East Tuesday, voiced measured optimism for Middle East peace and announced Israeli
and Palestinians leaders will launch formal peace negotiations at the White
House Wednesday.
Rice made the remarks at the closing of the one-day
conference attended by the representatives of more than 40 countries, regions
and international organizations.
The conference was proposed by U.S. President George
W. Bush in July. It was the first major international conference on the Middle
East sponsored by the Bush administration in seven years.
