Arab countries on Wednesday 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 Wednesday 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 on Wednesday, 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 News Agency April 19, 2007)
