EGYPT: Arab foreign ministers ask Egypt and Jordan to try to persuade Israel to accept an Arab peace plan

Record ID: 395803

  • Title: EGYPT: Arab foreign ministers ask Egypt and Jordan to try to persuade Israel to accept an Arab peace plan
  • Date: 20th April 2007
  • Summary: (W4)CAIRO, EGYPT (APRIL 18, 2007) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF ARAB LEAGUE HEADQUARTERS ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY GENERAL AMR MOUSSA AND SAUDI ARABIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAUD AL-FAISAL ENTERING NEWS CONFERENCE ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY GENERAL AMR MOUSSA AND SAUDI ARABIAN FOREIGN MINISTER SAUD AL-FAISAL AT NEWS CONFERENCE (SOUNDBITE)(English) ARAB LEAGUE SECRETARY GENERAL, AMR MOUSSA, SAYI
  • Embargoed: 5th May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Egypt
  • Country: Egypt
  • Reuters ID: LVA3REA82FPV86A7WQFB94M1N961
  • Story Text: Arab foreign ministers meeting in Cairo on Wednesday (April 18) asked Egypt and Jordan to contact the Israeli government and ordinary Israelis and try to persuade them to accept an Arab peace plan.
    The Arab peace plan, relaunched at an Arab summit in the Saudi capital Riyadh last month, offers Israel normal relations with all Arab states in return for land captured in the Middle East war of 1967 and a settlement for Palestinian refugees.
    After the ministerial meeting of an Arab League committee set up to coordinate peace overtures to Israel, League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said that the two main Arab states with diplomatic relation with Israel would advocate the plan.
    Amr Moussa said: "Now Egypt and Jordan will have this responsibility to embark on contacts with the government of Israel, to explain, to talk about the Arab initiative. We hope that this will open the way for the Israeli government to move on, and change its policy in the occupied territories, something that would open the gates for more contacts, wider contacts, and lead to a meaningful and hopefully successful negotiating process."
    The inclusion of only states that have negotiated peace with Israel in the working group is likely to disappoint Israel, which has long sought to "normalize" relations with other Arab and Muslim states prior to relinquishing its hold on the occupied territories - which it is obliged to do by numerous UN Security Council Resolutions.
    Israel has, in particular, coveted a relationship with Saudi Arabia due to its oil resources, its strategic importance in the Arab world and its religious significance to Muslims.
    Rumors of secret contacts between Israel and Saudi Arabia have proliferated in the last few years, but today Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said that the only way the two states could have official relations is if Israel accepting the Arab peace plan in its entirety.
    "There will be normalization with Israel if it withdraws completely from all the Arab lands and completes all that is required of it in the Arab initiative. Without this there will be no normalization or anything else," he said.
    The Arab peace initiative dates back to an Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 but Israel had rejected the terms as too demanding and the United States showed little interest in it.
    The attitude of Israel and the United States has changed in public but analysts say it is not yet clear whether Israel is prepared to be more flexible on "final status" issues such as the borders of a Palestinian state and Palestinian refugees.
    Amr Moussa said the Arab working group could be expanded at a later stage if the Israeli government met a list of Arab demands, including lifting sanctions against the Palestinian government and an end to work on Jewish settlements and on the barrier it is building through the West Bank.
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