Arab Ministers Approve Peace Offer, with Conditions
Reuters
Date: 03-19-05
By Suleiman al-Khalidi
ALGIERS (Reuters) - Arab foreign ministers agreed on Saturday to relaunch an offer of normal relations with Israel after spelling out in detail conditions which the Jewish state had repeatedly rejected in the past, ministers said.
Jordan had tried to simplify the offer, enshrined in an Arab peace initiative agreed in Beirut in 2002, to make it more appealing to public opinion in Israel and the rest of the world.
But other foreign ministers, meeting to prepare for an Arab summit in Algiers next week, dug in their heels and insisted that the offer make clear that normal ties depended on Israeli steps including withdrawal from land occupied since 1967.
"It was adopted without exception by all the ministers and it will be sent to the summit for approval," Jordanian Foreign Minister Hani al-Mulki told reporters.
He was referring to an amended version of a Jordanian resolution which says that the Arabs consider peace a "strategic option" and will open relations with the Jewish state after a comprehensive settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict.
Arab leaders, at their 2002 summit, offered Israel normal relations if it withdrew from the territory it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and let the Palestinians set up a state with Jerusalem as its capital. Israel rejected the offer.
The Algerian and Egyptian ministers, Abdelaziz Belkhadem and Ahmed Aboul Gheit, confirmed the decision.
"The Jordanian resolution was redrafted in a way that repeats the substance of the peace initiative of Beirut (and) in a way that promotes it to the world," Belkhadem said.
"This is not a free declaration, without Israel fulfilling the demands which came in Beirut," he added.
Mulki said earlier the aim of the Jordanian proposal was "to take advantage of the current circumstances in the region to convey the desire of the Arab world for peace."
It follows progress in relations between Israel and its neighbors. The Palestinians have declared a truce, while Egypt and Jordan have sent back ambassadors after a four-year gap.
REMARKET THE OFFER
The Arabs have complained that the world did not give them due credit for the initiative. Jordan, the Arab government friendliest toward Israel, wanted to remarket the offer by making it easier to digest, one official said.
Mulki said of the amended version: "They (the ministers) added more details on what is meant by international legitimacy resolutions. If they want to spell them out, it's okay.
"They spelt them out but they added the same wording we had that once Israel performs all activities, as discussed in the Arab initiative, they will have normal relations."
Delegates at the ministerial meeting said the Palestinians had insisted that the resolution be more specific on the borders of a Palestinian state, the right of Palestinian refugees to return and the status of Jerusalem as a Palestinian capital.
Syria, a stickler for adherence to U.N. resolutions which make demands on Israel, and the pro-Syrian government of Lebanon also had reservations about the original proposal by Jordan, senior Arab officials said.
Before the last-minute changes, an Algerian official said that most of the ministers opposed the Jordanian idea.
The unexpanded text of the Jordanian proposal, released in Amman earlier on Saturday, says comprehensive peace in the Middle East is "a strategic option which can be achieved in line with international legitimacy and which requires a similar commitment on the Israeli part."
It adds that Arab states are willing "to end the Arab-Israeli conflict and normalize ties with Israel in the event of achieving a comprehensive peace in compliance with international resolutions and the principle of peace for land."
It also said the Arabs are convinced that a military solution will not help achieve peace for either side.
"Jordan is trying to appeal to public opinion inside Israel... trying to calm Israelis' fears about Arab hostility and create a critical mass of public opinion," said analyst Abdel Moneim Said of Cairo's al-Ahram Center.
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