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What is the Saudi
Peace Initiative?
BBC: A Middle East peace initiative floated by Saudi
Arabia's Crown Prince Abdullah in 2002 is being revived at the Arab
League Summit in Algiers despite that fact that it was rejected by
Israel three years ago.
Source: BBC
News, 22 March, 2005
The plan:
The basic outline or principles of the Saudi plan
are known, but the detail is vague. The main points are:
- Israel is required to withdraw from all
territories seized in 1967 - the West Bank, Gaza, East Jerusalem and
the Golan Heights.
- In
return, all Arab states offer normal diplomatic relations - including a
peace deal that recognises Israel's right to exist and secures its
borders.
- The plan was formally announced at an Arab League
summit in Beirut in March 2003.
Other details are far less firm, but can be gleaned
from
an interview given to the New York Times newspaper by Crown Prince
Abdullah:
- Reports suggest that the Saudi plan
allows for Israeli sovereignty over the Western or Wailing Wall in
Jerusalem - one of Judaism's holiest sites.
- The same reports suggest that the plan
allows for the transfer of some areas of the West Bank to Israel in
return for equivalent transfers to a Palestinian sate.
- It is also suggested that the issue of
the right of return for Palestinian refugees to Israel has been dropped
or sidestepped.
This issue is crucial because many Israelis see the Palestinian claim
to the right of return as a fundamental demographic threat to the idea
of Israel as a state for Jewish people.
At present the only Arab governments that recognise
Israel are the Palestinian Authority, Egypt and Jordan.
The idea that all Arab states might offer Israel
normal
relations and recognise it as a state in the region is the most
striking element in the Saudi proposal.
The problems:
From the Israeli point of view, the plan as it
stands has certain problems. The crucial sticking points may be:
- Giving up all of the Golan Heights
- A Palestinian political and administrative
presence in Jerusalem
- The dismantling of all Israeli settlements in
Golan, West Bank and Gaza
- The potential problem of the right of return for
Palestinian refugees.
Of course Prime Minister Ariel Sharon is, and always
has
been, opposed to full Israeli withdrawal to 1967 borders. Should he
engage with the Saudi proposal, he will need to undergo a fundamental
conversion.