Israel has first meeting under Arab League mandate

By Staff
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CAIRO, May 10 (Reuters) Israel and Arab ministers with a mandate from the Arab League discussed a West Asia peace plan today for the first time since the creation of the Jewish state in 1948.

The foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan, acting as an Arab League working group, briefed Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni in Cairo on an Arab peace offer which had languished since 2002, repeatedly rejected by the Israelis.

The Arab League asked them to brief Livni after Israel and the United States this year showed belated interest in the peace plan, which offers Israel normal relations with all Arab states in return for withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders.

Although the 90-minute meeting was unprecedented, each side was careful not to make any commitments to the other.

Israel has not accepted the Arab peace plan and the Arab League made sure that the only foreign ministers in the working group were from countries that already recognise Israel.

An Arab League spokesman drew a distinction between contacts with the ministers and direct contact with the league.

''We have made clear that there are conditions for us sending a delegation to meet the Israelis,'' said spokesman Alaa Roushdy.

The Egyptian minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, said: ''We do not intend to negotiate with Israel on behalf of the parties. The parties concerned are the ones who will negotiate with Israel, whether Palestinians, or Syria or Lebanon.'' ''But the Arab League, by giving this group a mandate, is working to set the stage, preparing the right climate .... (and) then pushing the peace process forward,'' he added.

Livni called the ministers ''representatives of the Arab League'' and spoke mainly about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leaving aside the claims of Syria and Lebanon.

''The Israeli-Palestinian peace process will be on a bilateral track between Israelis and Palestinians but I do believe that the Arab world has a very important role in order to enhance, to support both sides,'' she said.

''Since we share the same goal, all the moderates in the region, of two states living side by side in peace ... I do believe this meeting was a very good one,'' she added.

Many Israelis have reservations about the requirement that Israel withdraw from all of the West Bank and East Jerusalem, where more than 400,000 Israelis have moved since 1967.

The Arab peace plan also requires an acceptable solution for the Palestinian refugees who lost their homes in 1948 and their descendants who have not been able to return.

Israel and the United States had hoped that the diplomacy over the Arab peace plan would lead to early public contacts between Israel and Arab governments which do not have diplomatic relations, especially Saudi Arabia.

But Arab foreign ministers deliberately chose only Egypt and Jordan to contact the Israelis because they have already signed peace treaties and the briefing to Israel would not include any unilateral diplomatic concessions.

But Israel can say that it is in touch with the 22-member Arab League for the first time and the Arab governments can argue that Israel is taking their peace offer seriously.

Livni said she hopes to have another meeting in Israel with the two Arab foreign ministers, Aboul Gheit of Egypt and Abdelelah al-Khatib of Jordan.

REUTERS AK PM2137

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