by Raid Qusti
RIYADH, 30 March 2007 — Leaders of Arab countries yesterday asked Israel to accept their land-for-peace offer to end their decades-old conflict while the Palestinian president warned of more violence if the “hand of peace” was rejected.
Speaking at the concluding session of a two-day summit in Riyadh, Mahmoud Abbas urged Israel not to waste the chance for peace and called for a committee led by Saudi Arabia to pursue it.
“The entire region will be under renewed threats of war, explosions, as well as regional and international confrontations, as a result of the absence of a solution or the impossibility of implementing one,” Abbas told the summit, which was also attended by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
Israel was not ready to accept the Arab peace plan in its present form and wanted negotiations. “I would say this: Let’s conduct negotiations. You come with your positions, and we will come with ours,” Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres told Israel Radio.
“I don’t think we need to predetermine what we accept or don’t accept. Each side should come with its own positions and negotiate from there,” he added.
The deal has called for a full withdrawal from Israeli occupied lands to pre-1967 borders and the establishment of an independent Palestinian state which would live side by side with Israel. It also calls for the return of Palestinian refugees. Arab countries in return would recognize Israel as a state and establish diplomatic relations with it.
Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud Al-Faisal said Israel was endangering the region by rejecting the peace initiative, which was originally proposed by Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah when he was crown prince.
The United States welcomed the endorsement by Arab leaders of the peace initiative to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. “That is something that we view as very positive,” said State Department spokesman Sean McCormack when asked about the outcome of the Arab summit and endorsement of the 2002 plan drawn up at a previous summit in Beirut.
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The full text of the "2002 Arab Peace Initiative":
The Arab Peace Initiative
The Council of Arab States at the Summit Level
at its 14th Ordinary Session,Reaffirming the resolution taken in June 1996 at the Cairo Extra-Ordinary Arab Summit that a just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East is the strategic option of the Arab countries, to be achieved in accordance with international legality, and which would require a comparable commitment on the part of the Israeli government,
Having listened to the statement made by his royal highness Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, crown prince of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, in which his highness presented his initiative calling for full Israeli withdrawal from all the Arab territories
occupied since June 1967, in implementation of Security Council Resolutions 242
and 338, reaffirmed by the Madrid Conference of 1991 and the land-for-peace
principle, and Israel's acceptance of an independent Palestinian state with East
Jerusalem as its capital, in return for the establishment of normal relations in
the context of a comprehensive peace with Israel, Emanating from the conviction of the Arab countries that a military solution to the conflict will not achieve peace or provide security for the parties, the council:1. Requests Israel to reconsider its policies and declare that a just peace is its
strategic option as well.2. Further calls upon Israel to affirm:
I- Full Israeli withdrawal from all the territories occupied since 1967,
including the Syrian Golan Heights, to the June 4, 1967 lines as well as the remaining occupied Lebanese territories in the south of Lebanon.II- Achievement of a just solution to the Palestinian refugee problem to be agreed upon in accordance with U.N. General Assembly Resolution 194.
III- The acceptance of the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the Palestinian territories occupied since June 4, 1967 in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
3. Consequently, the Arab countries affirm the following:I- Consider the Arab-Israeli conflict ended, and enter into a
peace agreement with Israel, and provide security for all the states of the region.II- Establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this
comprehensive peace.4. Assures the rejection of all forms of Palestinian patriation which conflict with the special circumstances of the Arab host countries.
5. Calls upon the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept this initiative in order to safeguard the prospects for peace and stop the further shedding of blood, enabling the Arab countries and Israel to live in peace and good neighbourliness and provide future generations with security, stability and prosperity.
6. Invites the international community and all countries and organisations to support this initiative.
7. Requests the chairman of the summit to form a special committee composed of some of its concerned member states and the secretary general of the League of Arab States to pursue the necessary contacts to gain support for this initiative at all
levels, particularly from the United Nations, the Security Council, the United
States of America, the Russian Federation, the Muslim states and the European
Union.
Read on...
Pertinent Links:
1) Accept Peace Offer, Arabs Ask Israel
2) The Arab Peace Initiative
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