GENEVA (Reuters) - A Middle East peace conference on Palestinian statehood expected in November is unlikely to succeed due to a lack of concrete commitments from the United States and Israel, a senior Fatah official said on Saturday.
The prevailing atmosphere is not conducive to a breakthrough at this conference," said Mohammad Dahlan, former national security advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, speaking at a security conference in Geneva.
Dahlan said the meeting needed to be based on concrete commitments but that up to now nothing had been presented by the Israelis or the Americans in writing.
"If the autumn meeting is simply to organise another get-together and to repeat activities and just have a photo opportunity, this would be another disaster," he said, speaking through a translator.
"These negotiations must have a grounding and a foundation.
"Sufficient effort has not been forthcoming to make for a successful meeting," he said.
Abbas has been pushing his Israeli counterpart Ehud Olmert for an explicit "framework agreement" before the conference with a timeline for implementation.
But Olmert is seeking a more broadbrush "declaration of principles" and said on Monday he was not sure the two leaders would be able to reach a deal on statehood principles ahead of the conference, which is expected to take place in the Washington, D.C., area in mid-to-late November.
"I think the U.S and the Israelis think that it will simply be another get-together and an exercise in public relations," Dahlan said.
Olmert and Abbas will meet again next week to discuss final status issues and prepare for a visit to the region by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later this month.
The United States has yet to spell out what it hopes to achieve at the November conference.
Dahlan said that any deal should not be derailed by the seizure of power in the Gaza Strip by Fatah's rival party Hamas.
"What happened in Gaza should not be used as an excuse to evade the peace process," he said.
"(Abbas) is the one that has the legal authority to negotiate on behalf of the Palestinian people ... so he has a free hand in negotiations."
