giovedì 27 settembre 2007

FM aL-Faisal: Israel should freeze settlement activities to attract Arabs to peace

Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies. Saudi Arabia Foreign Minister, Saud aL-Faisal, believed that if Israel wants Arabs to be attracted to peace, it should freeze settlement activities and halt construction of the separation barrier (Apartheid Wall) in the occupied West Bank. aL-Faisal told reporters on Wednesday in the UN in New York, where he is attending an annual UN general assembly gathering, that Arab countries should not be expected to take part in a planned Washington-based peace conference, unless Israel freeze’s settlement activities.

However, the Saudi crown prince believed that the planned conference means that there is an international diplomacy that is intended at reviving peace in the region.

"There is a sense that there is something new happening, and this is encouraging if it is going to prove right," the minister was quoted as saying.

“What we have been looking forward is tackling the final status issues, the important issues and not the partial ones”, he added.

Washington said Saudi Arabia, Qattar, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria are natural invitees to the conference, yet no official invitations have been sent.

Syrian foreign minister, Walid Almoualem, who is also attending the UN gathering, said that “if the goal was not to bring just and comprehensive peace in the region... I believe that attending that meeting would be a risk." .

The Washington-proposed conference on Middle East peace will be held in November, in the framework of international diplomacy to end the Arab-Israeli conflict on basis of peace for land formula.

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