RICE INVITES SYRIA, OTHER ARAB STATES, TO PEACE TALKS

Key Arab Nations Invited to Peace Talks - Matthew Lee
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Sunday that key Arab nations, including Syria, would be invited to President Bush's planned Mideast peace conference this fall and expressed hope they would attend. Formal invitations haven't been issued yet but Rice said it "would be natural" for Syria, Saudi Arabia and 10 other Arab League members looking at a broad peace deal with Israel to participate. "We would hope that the invitations would include the members of the Arab follow-up committee," Rice said. Committee members include Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia and Yemen. (AP/Washington Post)

See also "Hamas Planned Attack to Sabotage Peace Meeting" - Yaakov Katz
Hamas is under orders to perpetrate a large terrorist attack in an Israeli city to undermine the peace meeting scheduled for November, senior defense officials said Saturday, hours after a Yom Kippur suicide attack was thwarted by an arrest and the capture of an explosives belt in Tel Aviv. Military sources said Israeli security forces prevented a major attack at the last minute, given that the explosives were already in Tel Aviv. (Jerusalem Post)