Israeli President Shimon Peres last month called on Saudi King Abdullah to “further” a land-for-peace proposal endorsed six years ago by the Arab League, and Defence Minister Ehud Barak said last week Israelis were reconsidering the plan.
“For the past week Israel has started speaking in a new and positive way about this initiative. We note this change of language and we place a lot of hope in it,” Palestinian chief negotiator with Israel Ahmed Qorei said in Paris.
The Saudi plan calls for full Arab recognition of Israel if it gives up “all of the territories” occupied in the 1967 war and accepts “a just solution” for Palestinian refugees. “Peres has said that it’s a good and positive initiative and it is a base for a global negotiation between Israel and Arab countries.
Barak has spoken in similar terms. I think Barak and Tzipi Livni are in agreement about that,” Qorei said.
Livni, Israel’s foreign minister and prime minister-designate, has been Qorei’s counterpart in the most recent round of peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
