United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice shuttled between Israeli and Palestinian leaders for a second day on Monday as Arab states revived a five-year-old peace plan to positive noises from Israel.
As Arab foreign ministers gathered in Saudi Arabia endorsed their 2002 peace blueprint and called for contacts with all parties, including the Jewish state, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was willing to join a meeting of Arab leaders.
A four-way meeting with Israel, Palestinians, Arab moderates and the Middle East peace Quartet — the European Union, the United Nations, United States and Russian Federation — has reportedly been at the centre of discussions between Rice and regional leaders during her tour.
”If such an invitation would come my way, I would look at it in a very positive way,” he told a joint press conference in Jerusalem with UN chief Ban Ki-moon, who is also touring the region. ”Assuming I would get a visa, I would not hesitate to participate,” he said.
Olmert also said Israel could look favourably on the Arab peace plan that he has previously spurned. ”If moderate Arab countries try to advance the process along the lines of the Saudi initiative, I will look at it as a very positive development.”
Rice met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan, where she was seeking moderate Arab support for her peace efforts, before heading back to Jerusalem for fresh talks with Olmert.
A senior US official travelling with Rice said a meeting between Olmert and leaders of pro-Western Arab states Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) would be ”a good idea”, but added ”it’s a little premature”.
The official said it remained uncertain whether countries such as the UAE and Saudi Arabia, which have no formal ties with the Jewish state, would agree to attend a summit with Israeli leaders.
Substance
In Amman, the Palestinian leader told Rice that Olmert needed to be ready to talk about the substance of the peace process if intensive talks were to resume.
”President Abbas told the US secretary of state that it is not enough for Israel to want to talk to us about humanitarian and security issues,” chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters.
But the Palestinian leader later expressed ”optimism” over Rice’s latest peace mission, her fourth in as many months. ”Things are moving forward,” he said after talks with King Abdullah II, who also met Rice.
King Abdullah in turn ”expressed hope that Israel would react positively to the Arab peace initiative” and ”urged Israelis not to waste this historic opportunity”.
Rice plans to present a ”parallel” approach for advancing the deadlocked peace process at a press conference after her new talks with Olmert, US officials said.
The goal is to develop a replacement strategy for three-way diplomacy Rice launched last month by bringing together Abbas and Olmert.
US efforts to jump-start peace negotiations faltered after Abbas’s secular Fatah party joined a power-sharing government led by the Islamic movement Hamas last month.
The US and its international partners regard Hamas as a terrorist group and will meet only non-Islamist members of the new Cabinet.
To overcome the mistrust generated by the unity government deal, Rice has sought the support of Arab allies like Jordan for a new regional push to entice Israel back into negotiations.
Arab ministers
In Riyadh, Arab foreign ministers gathered ahead of an annual summit on Wednesday, renewed their endorsement of the Saudi-inspired peace blueprint first adopted at a Beirut summit in 2002.
”The Arab foreign ministers approved the Arab peace plan without amendment and in its initial form,” Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib said.
The blueprint offers Israel normal ties in return for full withdrawal from Arab land captured in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
The ministers also decided to create working groups to hold contacts with all players in the Middle East peace process, he said.
Rice told officials from the so-called Arab Quartet — Egypt, Jordan, Saudi Arabia and the UAE — at the weekend that her goal is to help revive the Saudi inspired peace plan.
Israel initially rejected the take-it-or-leave-it peace bid, but in recent weeks Israeli leaders have spoken more positively of the ideas as a starting point for negotiations.
The Jewish state has, however, sought some amendments to specify that Palestinian refugees can return to Palestinian-controlled areas, not to Israel, but Arab leaders are adamantly opposed to any changes. — Sapa-AFP