CAIRO, May 10: Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni stressed on Thursday the Arab world's “important role” in helping achieve peace between Israel and the Palestinians, after talks in Cairo with her Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts.
“I do believe that the Arab world has a very important role in order to enhance, to support both sides in order to achieve peace,” Livni told reporters after meeting with Egypt's Ahmed Abul Gheit and Jordan's Abdel Ilah Khatib.
In March, the Arab League revived a Saudi-drafted plan that offers Israel normal relations in exchange for its withdrawal from all land seized in the 1967 Middle East war, the creation of a Palestinian state and the return of Palestinian refugees.
The Arab League has tasked Egypt and Jordan -- the only two Arab states to have inked peace treaties with Israel -- with persuading the Jewish state to accept the peace initiative and Thursday's talks were the first.
Israel rejected the plan when it was first launched in 2002. Recently, however, it has said the proposal could provide a basis for talks, provided there are amendments to the refugee issue.
“I do believe that this is a beginning that can help both sides and help the region ... to achieve peace,” Livni said.
“We share the same goal -- all the moderates in the region-- of two states living side by side in peace... there are some new opportunities in an understanding of the Arab world of the need to support the peace process,” she said.
Before going into talks with Abul Gheit and Khatib, Livni said the gathering was “not only an important but a historic meeting.” She said it had been agreed that the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers would head to Israel, marking the first visit by official representatives of the Arab League in Israel. She did not specify a date.
“We have no intention of negotiating with Israel on behalf of the other parties,” Abul Gheit told reporters.
“The parties concerned will be the ones negotiating with Israel, whether it is the Palestinians, Syria or Lebanon,” he said, adding that the Arab League was only “preparing the groundwork” for direct negotiations.
Earlier on Thursday, Livni had a 90-minute meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak during which they both stressed “the necessity to promote a process between Israel and the Palestinians.” Livni raised the question of security in the Gaza Strip and the “problems of growing Hamas military capabilities,” her office said in a statement.
The foreign minister was also scheduled to meet Egypt's head of intelligence Omar Suleiman before heading back to Israel.
In an interview published Thursday in Egypt's top-selling newspaper Al-Ahram, Jordan's King Abdullah II described the peace plan as an “historic opportunity” and warned of war if it was missed.
“We warn against the eruption of a war in the region if progress is not achieved in the peace process,” he said.
“Let us take the situation forward to ease the pressure and prevent the start of such a war. We would all pay the price of a new war.” A group of prominent Israelis was also travelling to Jordan at the invitation of former prime minister Abdel Salam al-Majali, an architect of the 1994 peace treaty with Israel, who is pressing for a resumption of talks.
At the same time, Israel's media reported on Thursday that the foreign ministry is recommending the resumption of peace talks with Syria.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has made repeated peace overtures in recent months. Israel has so far rejected them, saying Damascus must first stop supporting militant groups in Lebanon and the Gaza Strip.
According to the Maariv newspaper, a majority within the intelligence community believe the Syrian signals should be seriously examined, with only the overseas spy agency Mossad still opposed to accepting the overtures.
Peace talks between Israel and Syria collapsed in 2000, mainly because of a deadlock over the return of the Golan Heights, which Israel captured from Syria in 1967 and annexed in 1981.—AFP
