Arab Nations Urge New Israeli Peace Plan
Pastor Dale Morgan
Arab Nations Urge New Israeli Peace Plan*
Saturday August 19, 2006 9:01 PM
By SALAH NASRAWI
Associated Press Writer
CAIRO, Egypt (AP) - Worried the Lebanon war has given a boost to Iran
and militants in the region, three U.S. allies in the Mideast are
spearheading an Arab effort to present a plan for reviving the stalled
peace process and talks with Israel.
Details remain sketchy, and already Israel has expressed skepticism,
saying it doubts any plan the trio put forward will take its security
needs into account. But the effort by Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Jordan is
a clear sign of their worries about tensions and Iran's influence.
So far, the United States has not talked about a wider peace effort in
the wake of the Lebanon fighting, instead focusing on ensuring the
Iranian- and Syrian-backed Hezbollah is reined in.
Leaders of the three moderate Arab governments, however, want to seize
the opportunity in the war's ashes to restart negotiations with Israel
for peace on the Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese fronts.
They fear letting the situation stagnate could increase the appeal of
radical Islamic groups and allow Iran and Syria to keep using Hezbollah
in proxy wars, breeding more resentments and more militancy.
Hesham Youseef, top aide to Arab League chief Amr Moussa, told The
Associated Press the Arab countries are putting together a peace plan to
present to the U.N. Security Council next month because they believe
``we should build on the international concerns on what is going on in
the whole area.''
``Big crises sometimes create opportunities to find comprehensive
solutions for difficult problems,'' he said, noting Arabs and Israelis
began the Madrid peace talks just months after the 1991 Persian Gulf war
that expelled Saddam Hussein's army from Kuwait.
``The war in 1973 also led to peace,'' Youseef said, referring to the
diplomacy which began after that Arab-Israeli conflict and eventually
resulted in the 1979 peace treaty between Egypt and Israel.
Arab foreign ministers are meeting in Cairo, Egypt, on Sunday to pave
the way for an Arab summit planned in Saudi Arabia later this month. A
new peace initiative will likely be high on the agenda, along with a
Saudi plan to gather money for rebuilding Lebanon - and countering a
flood of money from Iran to help Hezbollah win friends with its own
reconstruction projects.
Israel's defense minister, Amir Peretz, said last week that resumption
of dialogue with Syria and the Palestinians was possible. ``Every war
creates an opportunity for a new political process,'' he said.
But the chances of real movement remain unclear.
Israel's U.N. ambassador, Dan Gillerman, said Friday that he seriously
doubts any Arab initiative ``has a great chance of being a fair one that
would take Israel's security concerns into consideration.''
He said the 2003 ``road map'' plan put forward by the Bush
administration remained ``the only viable option'' for progress toward
peace.
The road map calls for the creation of an independent Palestinian state
living peacefully alongside Israel, but it has been stalled, with both
sides failing to take steps to implement it.
Israel also says that before anything else can happen, the international
community must execute the terms of the cease-fire outlined in U.N.
resolution 1701, to ensure Hezbollah is disarmed and the flow of Syrian
and Iranian arms and equipment to the guerrillas is halted.
``We think that anything that would take attention away from 1701 would
play into the hands of Iran and Syria,'' Israeli Foreign Ministry
spokesman Mark Regev said.
The Bush administration, highly critical of Hezbollah, Syria and Iran,
is also likely to push for full implementation of the cease-fire deal as
the first step - a tricky process that could be lengthy.
It is not known how the new Arab peace effort might differ from past ones.
In early 2002, Saudi Arabia put forward a plan calling for peace between
Israel and all Arab nations once the Jewish state gave up the Golan
Heights, West Bank and other Arab lands seized in wars. The Arab League
endorsed the plan, but Israel said its requirement for a withdrawal to
pre-1967 borders would jeopardize Israeli security.
Youseef said the new Arab peace effort would build on both the road map
and the Saudi plan. ``We will not start from scratch. We just want to
refocus on the real issue - a just and comprehensive peace,'' he said.
The Arab countries' motivation is clear: With Hezbollah and its backers,
Syria and Iran, declaring victory in the monthlong war that left much of
southern Lebanon in ruins, many see a looming struggle over the future
of the Middle East.
The split between Syria and other Arab states has only grown deeper
since the cease-fire. Syrian President Bashar Assad jabbed at fellow
Arab leaders with a speech Tuesday saying the war had revealed them to
be ``half men'' - prompting sizzling denunciations of Assad in Arab media.
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Associated Press writers Steve Weizman in Jerusalem and Edith M. Lederer
at the United Nations contributed to this report.