Regional coverage of the events in Annapolis come from the Al-Jazeera and Al-Arabiya news networks (think Fox and CNN for a reference point). Al-Jazeera is calling the event “the Annapolis Convention” while Al-Arabiya is calling it “the Annapolis Meeting”. Is that intentional? Certainly, a convention sounds more formal (and perhaps indicative of greater hopes of a workable outcome); but one cannot discount the possibility that one may be reading more into words than one ought to. If my Arabic were better, and I could more fully understand what the respective channels were talking about, I might end this mystery, but alas.

It may also interest the one or two people who read this blog to note that in the aftermath of the live remarks (that I watched on BBC World), I have yet to see coverage on the other main regional news channel, Al Manar (Hezbollah’s news station). Al-Manar has been more focused on discussing the ongoing political deadlock in Lebanon, relegating news of the Annapolis Convention/Meeting to the ticker like an amusing afterthought. Neither have I seen any coverage on the Syrian channel, but they rarely do the news to begin with.

Update: As I’m composing this, I’m watching the Syrian news. They’re calling it a “conference” as well. News of the conference is followed up by a discussion of the occupied Golan Heights and the UN.