Egypt, Jordan take the lead to contact Israel on Arab peace initiative
19/4/2007 16:41
Arab countries yesterday chose Egypt and Jordan to take the lead to
persuade Israel to accept an Arab peace initiative in an effort to activate the
peace offer with the Jewish state, expressing Arab countries' commitment to the
peace plan. Egypt and Jordan, which already have retrieved occupied lands
from Israel, signed peace treaties and established relations with the Jewish
state, will be the only members of an Arab committee to contact Israel on the
Arab peace initiative, a statement released by the Arab foreign ministers
said. The statement came after 13 foreign ministers of a newly-formed Arab
peace initiative committee convened in Cairo yesterday at the Arab League (AL)
headquarters with the attendance of AL Secretary General Amr Moussa to discuss
efforts to activate the Arab peace initiative relaunched by 19th Arab summit in
Riyadh in late March. Earlier on Sunday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
said that he is willing to talk with any representative of Arab states and would
like to hear their ideas to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Following
the meeting yesterday, Moussa said at a joint press conference with Saudi
Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal that there is no free normalization of
relations with Israel, reaffirming earlier stance that there is no amendments to
the peace initiative. However, Moussa expressed the readiness of Arab
countries to enter into a final peace process and consider the Arab-Israeli
conflict a thing of the past. According to the statement read out by
al-Faisal, after Israel stops its activities on the ground or the occupied
lands, such as building settlements and separation security walls and the
economic siege against the Palestinians, there will be an expanded team of Arab
countries to contact Israel. Al-Faisal added that Egypt and Jordan would try
to initiate direct talks with Israel and call on the Israeli government and all
Israelis to accept the Arab peace initiative and to take this chance to resume
direct and serious talks on all levels. But Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed
Abul Gheit underlined that Egypt and Jordan are only representatives of Arab
states to persuade Israel to accept the peace initiative, ruling out holding
peace talks with Israel, Egypt's MENA news agency reported. Egypt and the AL
insists that negotiation with Israel be an exclusive affair of any party which
has a problem with Israel, whether Palestinians, Syrians or Lebanese. The
initiative, first approved by the AL in its 2002 Beirut summit and refused by
Israel at first, calls for Israel's pullout from Arab land occupied in the 1967
Middle East war and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state in
return for the normalization of ties with Arab states. After the Arab summit
reactivated the peace initiative in Riyadh in late March, the Israeli side has
said it is willing to start a dialogue with Arab countries but will not accept
the return of any Palestinian refugees demanded by the
initiative.
Xinhua
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