Arab League calls to restart Israeli-Palestinian negotiations

The Arab League called for an Israel-Palestinian peace in line with the Saudi initiative a “strategic Arab option.”

Members of the Arab League called for restarting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) in order to bring about the creation of a Palestinian state along the lines of Israel’s boundaries before the Six Day War of 1967.

“The Arab countries will continue to work towards re-launching serious and effective peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis to end this conflict based on the two-state solution, which brings about a Palestinian state on pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital,” stated the Arab League’s Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit in a communique from this year’s summit in Amman, Jordan.

The statement added that the Arab League views peace to be “a strategic Arab option as envisioned in the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative, which is the most comprehensive plan that is capable of achieving historic peace.”

The Arab Peace Initiative, presented by Saudi Arabia on behalf of the rest of the Arab League, offers Israel full diplomatic relations with the Arab world in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all territories it won during the Six Day War of 1967, including Jerusalem’s Old City.

Moreover, the Arab League also called for Israel to avoid measures “designed to change the identity of Jerusalem” as well as for “world countries not to relocate their embassies to Jerusalem or declare the city a capital of Israel.”

Ahead of the Arab League’s summit, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas said that no new initiatives would be presented and that the Palestinians would continue to stick with the Arab Peace Initiative.

By: Jonathan Benedek, World Israel News