Saudi official presents new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan

Saudi official presents new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan

By Avi Issacharoff, Haaretz Correspondent

Turki al-Faisal, the former Saudi intelligence director and a member of the royal family, presented a proposal for Israeli-Palestinian peace at a conference yesterday. Arab, Palestinian and Israeli political figures attended the conference, organized by the Oxford Research Group, which seeks to promote the Saudi Peace Initiative of 2002. Al-Faisal, who heads the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies, expressed the kingdom's support for a comprehensive peace and the rights of the Palestinian people.

Al-Faisal also said that both sides must condemn violence together, and called on Israel to stop targeted assassinations and arrests, the construction of the West Bank security barrier and the expansion of settlements and separate roads. The Palestinians, he said, must stop all suicide bombings and rocket fire at Israel. He also called on Israel to release all Palestinian prisoners, and for captive Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit to be released from the Gaza Strip. Among the participants in the conference were Nabil Fahmy, Egypt's former ambassador to Washington; Hisham Youssef, the Arab League secretary-general's chief of staff; and former Palestinian national security adviser Jibril Rajoub. The Israeli delegation included Avi Gil, former director general of the Prime Minister's Office and Foreign Ministry, as well as several other former government figures and academics. Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Sunday that Israeli leaders have recently discussed pursuing the Saudi peace plan. Peres to press peace concerns with Egypt President Shimon Peres will meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Thursday to discuss regional peace efforts and Egyptian-mediated contacts to extend a Gaza truce, a government official said on Monday. Mubarak invited Peres by telephone and the two will meet in the Sinai resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, the official said. There was no immediate comment from Cairo. The official said Peres wants to explore the possibility of extending a June truce between Israel and Gaza militants that that has largely calmed the volatile border with the Hamas-ruled coastal terrority. Hamas says the deal mediated by Egypt could expire in December. Peres also plans to propose widening the circle of Israel's peace talks beyond the Palestinians and Syria to include other Arab countries, the official said. Peres envisages negotiating a comprehensive deal with Arab countries rather than pursuing separate agreements with either the Palestinians or Syria, with which Israel has held some indirect talks in the past year, the official said. Egypt in 1979 became the first Arab country to sign a peace treaty with Israel, followed by Jordan in 1994. The talks at Sharm el-Sheihk come at a transitional phase for Israel. Outgoing prime minister Ehud Olmert is presently serving in a caretaker capacity since he resigned last month in the shadows of a corruption probe.