International aid donors to Palestine will convene next week in Tokyo to discuss ways to add momentum to the Middle East peace process after a pledge for peace was recently put forward by Israel and Palestine, Foreign Minister Yohei Kono said Friday.
Japan and Norway will jointly chair the two-day ad hoc liaison committee meeting, which will convene Thursday in Tokyo, its sixth session since November 1993, he said. Kono will jointly chair the meeting with Norwegian Foreign Minister Knut Vollebaek.
In addition to the two chair countries, representatives from Israel, Palestine, the United States, Russia, Canada, the European Union, Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, the World Bank, the United Nations and the International Monetary Fund will also attend the talks, he said.
Yasser Arafat, head of the autonomous government in Palestine and chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization, is expected to participate in the meeting, Kono said.
The international community has been considering ways to cement peace in the Middle East after Israel and Palestine agreed last month to resume talks over the final status of Jerusalem and implement the provisions of the Wye River accord, a breakthrough land-for-peace deal on the West Bank they signed last October.