Egypt and Jordan to push peace plan
The Arab plan promises Israel normal ties in exchange for land captured in 1967.
Ehud Olmert, the Israeli prime minister, on Wednesday told the Israeli parliament that an Arab League delegation could soon visit Israel to discuss the initiative.
But Amr Moussa, the Arab League secretary general, said a larger Arab delegation, including countries that did not sign a peace treaty with Israel, would only negotiate after certain conditions had been met.
“Once Israel stops its practices in the occupied territories, mainly lifting the sanctions on the Palestinian people, halting the building of settlements and the building of the wall … then a larger working group will be formed to contact the Israeli government,” he said, reading the statement.
“We reiterate our call to the government of Israel and all Israelis to accept the peace initiative and to seize the opportunity for a resumption of the process of direct and serious negotiations on all fronts,” Saud said.
Foreign ministers from 13 Arab countries met on Wednesday at the Arab League to discuss how to re-activate their 2002 peace proposal, which Israel originally rejected out of hand, but has since expressed more interest in.
The Arab plan promises normalised relations in exchange for Arab land captured in 1967, the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of refugees.
Jordan‘s King Abdullah II on Wednesday called Olmert to stress the importance of keeping the peace process momentum going and drawing up a timetable for a comprehensive solution.
Abdullah stressed “the need to maintain the momentum (to relaunch) the peace process and agree on a precise timetable for concrete results based on the two state solution and the Arab peace initiative,” the official Petra agency said.