Jordanian King proposes peace deal

Jordan’s King Abdullah has proposed a new peace strategy that drops traditional Arab demands that Israel give up all land seized in the 1967 war and offers the Jewish state normalised relations with Arab countries.

The proposal did not appear to have enough support to be adopted at an Arab League summit next week in the Algerian capital, Algiers.

But even placing such a dramatic change in strategy on the agenda would have been unthinkable in past league gatherings, suggesting new thinking in the peace process with Israel.

The Jordanian proposal makes no mention of specific UN resolutions and usual Arab demands for an Israeli withdrawal to pre-1967 borders and for the right of return of refugees.

The omission suggests King Abdullah, whose country signed a peace deal with Israel in 1994, wants the Arabs to accept geographical changes Israel has made in the territories and to start normalisation even before a full peace is reached.

The proposal submitted for the Algiers summit has only vague wording, declaring “the Arab states’ preparedness to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and establish normal relations between the Arab countries and Israel through just, comprehensive and lasting peace,” according to a text relayed by an Arab diplomat to The Associated Press.

It says peace should be along the lines of “international resolutions and the principal of land for peace and the (1991) Madrid peace conference” but makes no specific demands.

Arab leaders have always demanded full peace with Israel – meaning a return of all occupied lands – in return for normalisation.

Arab League officials said the proposal had little support among Arab nations. Syria has always staunchly opposed any normalisation.

Palestinian delegates to the summit’s preparatory discussions said the Jordanian proposal “was not acceptable” because it ignores the “fundamental basis for a just and comprehensive settlement".

“This is like giving a thief more than he had already stolen,” one senior Palestinian official said.