Arabs sceptical over Israeli meeting plan

Israel should withdraw from Arab territory and allow the creation of a Palestinian state before Arabs recognize it, a Saudi official said yesterday - the first Saudi statement on the issue since Israel's prime minister publicly invited Arab leaders to discuss their ideas for peace with him.

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert specifically called on Saudi Arabia Sunday to take the lead, the first time Israel has made such a request of the Saudis, who maintain a state of war with Israel but are pushing for a peace deal.

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Asked about Olmert's call, the Saudi official told The Associated Press that Israel should accept the 2002 Arab peace initiative and launch negotiations with Palestinians and Syria leading to a return of their lands and the creation of a Palestinian sttate. "Then normalization of ties can begin," he said.

At a summit in Saudi Arabia last week, the Arab League renewed its commitment to the peace initiative, which was initially proposed by Saudi Arabia. Olmert welcomed the decision but said Israel did not accept all parts of the plan.

He said that if King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia were to invite him, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and moderate Arab leaders to a meeting "to present Saudi Arabia's ideas before us, we will come to hear them and be glad to offer our ideas."

Egypt's assistant foreign minister for Arab affairs, Hani Khallaf, was quoted as saying Monday that the the Arab side cannot negotiate on behalf of the Palestinians. The Jordanian government did not make any immediate comments.

Syria had no immediate comment to the latest Israeli offer. At a meeting with Olmert on Sunday, the Israeli premier asked US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to take a message to Syrian President Bashar Assad that if Syria stops its support for terrorism, Israel would be interested in making peace.

In a March 22 interview with French television, Assad said seeking peace with Israel is a "firm principle," but stressed that the return of the Golan Heights, captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war, was a Syrian right that would not be compromised.

"The land must be returned in full. Any other details are subject to negotiations but land is not. It is Syrian land," he said.

Israel occupies Syria's Golan Heights and the disputed Chebaa Farms, where the borders of Lebanon, Syria and Israel meet, as well as areas in the West Bank.

Lebanon's Prime Minister Fuad Saniora, responding in Beirut to a question on Olmert's call, said the Arab peace initiative was "based on the very principle of land-for-peace. And this is something that Israel has to understand."