Middle East peace conference: first serious talks in seven years?

21 Nov, 2007 07:18 / Updated 16 years ago

Fresh efforts to restart the stalled Middle East peace process get underway in the U.S. next week. The international talks will be the first serious negotiations on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in more than seven years.

A week before the U.S-hosted conference in Maryland, Israeli Defence minister Ehud Barak visited Washington to push for Israel-Syria relations to be the focus of the meeting.The Golan Heights on Israel's border with Syria is a ‘no man’s land’. It remains one of the unresolved issues in the conflict.  Israelis who live there face eviction from their homes any day.