The London-based al-Quds al-Arabi pointed out that despite the diplomatic activity to revive the Middle East peace process, there is still no real progress on the ground. The Palestinian daily said all the talk for the peace process comes while Jewish settlements are still expanding in the West Bank, the separation barrier is still being built and more than 1.5 million Palestinians are still shut away from the outside world.

It said the conference appears to be an American attempt to “expand the Arab-Israeli normalisation on an official level, which could lead to an American-Arab-Israeli alliance to spearhead any impending attack on Iran to destroy its nuclear facilities.”

The writer is former diplomatic editor of the London ‘Observer’