Arab emissaries extend 'hand of peace' to Israel

Arab emissaries extend 'hand of peace' to Israel
Envoys call for rapid timetable for talks

Compiled by Daily Star staff
Thursday, July 26, 2007

Arab emissaries extend 'hand of peace' to Israel

Arab envoys on a landmark visit to Israel presented its leaders with a regional land-for-peace plan on Wednesday extending "a hand of peace" and called for a rapid timetable for talks with the Palestinians over statehood. For his part, Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert sent the clearest signal yet that he would try to restart talks on the final status of a Palestinian state with President Mahmoud Abbas, whose Fatah movement lost control of Gaza to Hamas last month.

Israel described the one-day visit by the Jordanian and Egyptian foreign ministers as a "historic" move on the part of the 22-nation Arab League. But it stopped short of embracing their initiative.

"We are extending a hand of peace on behalf of the whole region to you, and we hope we will be able to create the momentum needed to resume fruitful and productive negotiations" between Israel and the Palestinians and the rest of the Arab world, Jordan's foreign minister, Abdel-Ilah Khatib, said at a news conference with Israeli President Shimon Peres.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmad Abu al-Gheit urged Israel to consider the plan seriously.

"We hope that upon our return, we would also convey to the Arab League ... the responses of Israel and I hope that such responses will be positive," he said.

The envoys are expected to discuss the visit with their Arab League next Monday - part of a flurry of diplomatic efforts meant to restart peace talks after a seven-year lull.

"We need a precise timetable, a quick timetable and we urge Israel not to waste this historic opportunity. Time is not on our side," Khatib said.

Abu al-Gheit said it was not sufficient for Israel to limit talk to what diplomats call a "political horizon" - defined by Olmert's aides as the legal, economic and governmental structures of a future Palestinian state. "I don't see [that] as enough because the horizon, often if not frequently, is never reached," he said.

Olmert said he has discussed steps toward establishing a Palestinian state with Abbas.

"We have started very seriously to talk with Mr. Abbas on a peace process and questions which can allow a Palestinian state to be established," he said following a meeting with President Shimon Peres.

But Olmert said there were "no precise timetables or stages established yet" for getting to discussions about permanent borders and the future of Occupied Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, all divisive issues in the Jewish state.

Abbas said in Ramallah that he hoped Olmert would become a "partner to a final settlement that will lead to an independent viable Palestinian state."

Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported earlier that Olmert was offering to hold talks to agree principles to establish a Palestinian state with Occupied Jerusalem as its capital before more sensitive diplomatic issues are tackled.
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He would be likely to offer establishing a Palestinian state in Gaza, and about 90 percent of the occupied West Bank, with territorial compensation in exchange for retaining large Jewish settlement blocs, Haaretz said.

Wednesday's visit was the first by Arab League representatives to promote their peace plan, which offers Israel normal ties with all Arab states in return for a full withdrawal from the lands it seized in the 1967 Middle East war, creation of a Palestinian state and a "just solution" for refugees.

Israeli officials and the Arab envoys stressed that the Arab initiative was supposed to complement, rather than replace, direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.

"Israel is looking forward to discussing the Arab peace initiative and I will be more than happy that the next time you come, you bring with you ministers from more Arab countries" that back the plan, Olmert told the envoys.

Without going into specifics, Livni hailed what she called an "historic opportunity" for Arab-Israeli relations, saying the Jewish state was determined to make progress in the peace process with the Palestinians.

"What we don't want to do today is bring forward all our differences between the two sides," she told the news conference.

"I believe that right now we can find the common denominator [among Israel, the Palestinians and Arab states] and put it together to find the best process that we can promote and support," she added.

Olmert has said the Arab plan has positive elements. But citing demographic and security concerns, he made clear Israel opposed the return of Palestinian refugees to their former homes in what is now the Jewish state and wanted to hold on to major settlement blocs in the West Bank.

Neither Israel nor the visiting Arab envoys spelled out how significant progress could be made towards statehood with the Palestinian territories divided between Hamas-run Gaza and the Israeli-occupied West Bank, where Fatah holds sway.

Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum said Olmert's comments were a diversion meant to "throw dust in the eyes" of the world.

Israel sought to cast the envoys' visit as a potential turning point in relations with the Arab League. But Arab diplomats played down the gesture, and the head of the Arab League told the BBC that the Egyptian and Jordanian diplomats were not acting on behalf of the organization. - Agencies