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World Jewish News
'Arabs revising peace plan to win Israel backing for two states'
06.05.2009
Arab states are revising elements of a 2002 peace plan to encourage Israel to agree to the establishment of a demilitarized Palestinian state, the London-based paper Al-Quds al-Arabi reported Wednesday.
The countries are making the amendments at United States President Barack Obama's request, the paper said. Some of the changes deal with a controversial "right of return" for Palestinian refugees to Israel or a future state of Palestine.
The notion of a return to Israel proper by Palestinian refugees and their descendents has met with considerable opposition in Israel from across the political spectrum.
According to the pan-Arab paper, the amendments are also to the framing of a timetable for the normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world, which the plan offers in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from territory conquered in the 1967 Six Day War.
Jordan's King Abdullah, who recently met with Obama in Washington, is managing the contacts held to revise the initiative. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will reportedly present the plan to Obama in a meeting in a number of weeks.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said last month he opposed the peace initiative, which was proposed by Saudi Arabia, because of the demand for a right of return. "This is a subject upon which there is wide agreement in the government and in the public as well," he told the cabinet.
By Yoav Stern, Haaretz Correspondent
Источник: Haaretz
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