Jordan Times
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Arab leaders revive peace plan
at Saudi summit
By Khalid Neimat in Riyadh
with AFP dispatches
King Abdullah on Wednesday held talks with several leaders on the sidelines of
the Riyadh Arab summit, which unanimously decided to revive a five-year-old plan
for peace with Israel and launch a diplomatic offensive to resolve the Middle
East conflict.
A resolution reaffirming their commitment to the Saudi-inspired peace plan was
adopted by the Arab League heads of state on the first day of their annual
summit in the Saudi capital, ministers said.
The blueprint offers Israel full normalisation of relations if it withdraws from
all land occupied in the 1967 war and allows the creation of a Palestinian state
and the return of Palestinian refugees. Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul
Gheit confirmed to AFP that the heads of state adopted all resolutions submitted
by their foreign ministers, including relaunching the peace plan. In the
resolution, a copy of which was seen by AFP, the Arab leaders “reaffirm the
commitment of all Arab states to the Arab Peace Initiative as approved at the
Beirut summit in 2002 in all its elements”.
The Arab leaders will issue a direct call to the Israeli government and people
to accept the peace offer and negotiate, according to the resolution which will
be made public on Thursday.
They “reaffirm their call to the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept
the Arab Peace Initiative and seize the opportunity to resume the process of
direct and serious negotiations on all tracks,” the text says.
The resolution also mandated a ministerial committee formed when the peace plan
was first adopted to set up working teams to undertake contacts with the UN
chief, the UN Security Council, the international Quartet “and parties concerned
with the peace process” to seek a resumption of negotiations.
The opening of the two-day summit was marked by a strident attack by Saudi King
Abdullah against the presence of its close US ally in Iraq as an “illegitimate
foreign occupation”, and a warning of civil war.
Several world figures, including UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign
policy chief Javier Solana, attended the opening session in Riyadh, where
security was tight as police blocked roads and military helicopters patrolled
the skies.
Only Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi has boycotted the summit.
The annual gathering comes after US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice appealed
to Arab states to “begin reaching out to Israel” by building on the 2002 plan.
Israel initially rejected the blueprint, but its leaders have recently spoken of
it as a starting point for talks — although they see its insistence on the right
of return of Palestinian refugees as a stumbling block.
However, Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al Faisal warned in an interview
with a British newspaper that Israel should not expect any further diplomatic
overtures.
“If Israel refuses [the plan], that means it doesn’t want peace and it places
everything back in the hands of fate. They will be putting their future not in
the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the lords of war.”
A US push for peace has been complicated by the formation of a Palestinian unity
government between Hamas — boycotted as a “terrorist” group by the West — and
the Fateh Party of President Mahmoud Abbas.
Abbas warned Israel on Tuesday: “If this initiative is destroyed, I do not
believe that a better chance for peace will present itself in the near future.”
But prime minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas told AFP: “I don’t expect at all that
Israel will accept the peace plan.”
In the resolutions, the Arab leaders are also expected to call for an end to a
Western financial and diplomatic boycott imposed since Hamas first came to power
a year ago.
The Palestinians are also seeking $2.7 billion in aid from Arab states,
including unpaid pledges.
Another resolution calls for amendments to the Iraqi constitution to give more
power to the former Sunni Arab elite, with the Saudi king warning that “ugly
sectarianism threatens civil war”.
The Saudi monarch also appealed for an end to the “crippling” political crisis
in Lebanon, where divisions were highlighted by the presence at the summit of
two rival pro- and anti-Syrian delegations.
Saudi-led efforts to break the deadlock have so far failed to yield a
breakthrough, but Abdullah held talks on Tuesday with Syrian President Bashar
Assad for the first time since relations chilled over last year’s Lebanon war
and Syrian policy towards its neighbour.
Syria will host the next Arab summit in 2008, the heads of state decided.
On the sidelines of the summit, King Abdullah held talks with several leaders on
efforts to revive the peace process.
The Monarch met separately with Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf, Malaysian
Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi and his Lebanese counterpart Fuad Siniora.
King Abdullah also discussed the Palestinian situation at a meeting with Abbas.
The meeting was attended by Haniyeh.
The King also discussed bilateral relations with Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki.