Occupied Jerusalem: A dormant, decade-old Mideast peace plan has suddenly emerged as a possible key to breaking years of deadlock between Israel and the Palestinians. A top Palestinian official said on Sunday that the visiting US Secretary of State John Kerry has expressed interest in reviving the so-called Arab Peace Initiative, a 2002 plan in which the Arab world offered comprehensive peace with Israel in exchange for a full pullout from all territories it captured in the 1967 Mideast war.
It was not immediately clear whether the Arab initiative came up in Sunday night talks between Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Kerry. A senior State Department official said the meeting “included a discussion on how to create a positive climate for negotiations,” but that Kerry had asked all participants to keep the details confidential. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of Kerry’s orders not to brief reporters. Abbas spokesman, Nabeel Abu Rdeneh, said Abbas urged Israel to release Palestinian prisoners it is holding, called on Israel to halt colony construction and urged Israel to commit to a solution based on the 1967 lines. He did not say whether the Arab peace initiative was discussed but confirmed Abbas was leaving Monday for talks on the plan at an Arab League meeting in Qatar.
Mohammad Subaih, the Arab League’s undersecretary for Palestinian affairs, confirmed a special committee on the peace initiative would hold “an urgent meeting” in Doha on Monday. He said the prime minister of Qatar would chair the meeting, and foreign ministers of key countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and the Palestinians, would attend. The Arab League’s chief Nabeel Al Arabi is also expected, he said. Subaih said the committee would form a delegation, chaired by Al Arabi and the Qatari prime minister, to travel to Washington in the coming weeks. In Washington, the delegation will try together with the American side draw a road map to “end Israeli occupation,” he said.
Earlier on Sunday, the chief Palestinian negotiator, Saeb Erekat, said Kerry has been floating the Arab initiative as a possible way out of the deadlock. Officials say Kerry has proposed two small changes to make it more palatable to Israel, saying the 1967 lines could be modified through mutual agreement and pressing for stronger security guarantees. Security-obsessed Israel has grown increasingly jittery during the upheaval that has swept through the Middle East over the past two years. Speaking to the Voice of Palestine radio station, Erekat said the plan could not be changed. “Kerry asked us to change few words in the Arab Peace Initiative but we refused,” he said. Israeli officials refused to comment on the matter. An Israeli official said the Israelis were planning to offer “a wide spectrum of ideas” to Kerry when they meet with him in the current days. The official declined to elaborate. He spoke on condition of anonymity because nothing has been formally presented yet. In the past, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has described the Arab peace initiative as a welcome sign of acceptance from the Arab world but refused to accept it in its current form. Netanyahu has said that presenting the plan as an ultimatum would undermine negotiations. But after years of deadlock, and growing international isolation over continued Israeli settlement construction, Netanyahu could find himself in a difficult position if the offer is again extended.
