Arab leaders relaunch peace summit

Arab leaders opened a key summit today to relaunch a land-for-peace offer to Israel.

US allies were trying to rally other Arabs behind ways to win Israeli and Western acceptance of the deal, despite reluctance from Syria.

The peace initiative is the centrepiece of the two-day summit, which convened in the Saudi capital Riyadh at a time when the United States has shown some progress in manoeuvring all sides into place for a resumption in long-stalled Mideast peace negotiations.

Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal and other Arab officials said Israel must snap up the chance and accept the Arab offer.

“If Israel refuses, that means it doesn’t want peace. Then (the conflict) goes back into the hands of the lords of war,” al-Faisal said.

The initiative, first launched by the Arab summit in 2002, offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with all Arab countries in return for Israeli withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war.

It also calls for setting up a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and a “just solution” to the issue of Palestinian refugees forced out of lands in what is now Israel.

Israel rejects a full withdrawal from the West Bank and east Jerusalem, and it strongly opposes the influx of large numbers of Palestinian refugees into the Jewish state.

Israel rejected the Arab initiative in 2002, but Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said last week his country was willing to accept it with some changes, particularly if demands on Palestinian refugees were watered down.

The Arab summit plans to relaunch the peace plan but has rejected any changes.

“They tell us to amend it, but we tell them to accept it first, then we can sit down at the negotiating table,” Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in a speech at the summit opening.

But the summit will create “working groups” to promote the offer in talks with the United States, United Nations and Europe – and perhaps Israel.

US allies Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt are hoping that the working groups can work behind the scenes to make the initiative more palatable to Israel and the West and the basis for a relaunching of talks.