-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: March 27, 2007 8:57:04 PM PDT
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: On the Brink of War with Iran, "Pole Shift" Occurs in the
Middle East
Accept peace plan or face war,
Arab World Tells Israel
By David Blair, in Riyadh
The Telegraph (UK), 28/03/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/03/28/
wisrael28.xml
The "lords of war" will decide Israel's future if it rejects a
blueprint for peace crafted by the entire Arab world, Saudi
Arabia's veteran foreign minister warned yesterday.
As leaders began gathering in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, for
today's summit of the Arab League, Prince Saud al-Faisal told The
Daily Telegraph that the Middle East risks perpetual conflict if
the peace plan fails.
Saudi foreign minister Prince Saudi al-Faisal, right, and Amr
Moussa, Secretary General of the Arab League
Under this Saudi-drafted proposal, every Arab country would
formally recognise Israel in return for a withdrawal from all the
land captured in the war of 1967.
This would entail a Palestinian state embracing the entire West
Bank and Gaza with East Jerusalem as its capital. Every Arab
country will almost certainly endorse this blueprint when the
Riyadh summit concludes tomorrow. Prince Saud said Israel should
accept or reject this final offer.
"What we have the power to do in the Arab world, we think we have
done," he said. "So now it is up to the other side because if you
want peace, it is not enough for one side only to want it. Both
sides must want it equally."
Speaking inside his whitewashed palace, surrounded by luxuriant
lawns and manicured flower beds resembling a green oasis in the
drabness of Riyadh, Prince Saud delivered an unequivocal warning to
Israel.
"If Israel refuses, that means it doesn't want peace and it places
everything back into the hands of fate. They will be putting their
future not in the hands of the peacemakers but in the hands of the
lords of war," he said.
Prince Saud dismissed any further diplomatic overtures towards
Israel. "It has never been proven that reaching out to Israel
achieves anything," he said.
"Other Arab countries have recognised Israel and what has that
achieved?
"The largest Arab country, Egypt, recognised Israel and what was
the result? Not one iota of change happened in the attitude of
Israel towards peace."
Israel has numerous reservations about the Arab peace plan -- which
was previously proposed at a summit in 2002. Israel fears any hint
that Palestinian refugees would have the right to return to their
homes in the event of a peace settlement.
Prince Saud is the 66-year-old son of the late King Faisal.
Relieved of the need to seek re-election, he has held office for 32
years.
Flush with oil money, Saudi Arabia is playing a more assertive role
in Middle Eastern diplomacy. As well as securing the Arab peace
plan, the Kingdom brokered the agreement between Hamas and Fatah --
the two Palestinian factions -- to form a unity government.
But western diplomats in Riyadh believe this resurgence in Saudi
diplomacy stems from more than the kingdom's oil boom.
The menacing spectre of Iran, the rising Shia power with nuclear-
tipped ambitions for regional dominance, looms large across the
waters of the Gulf.
Saudi Arabia is quietly moving to contain its bellicose neighbour.
Prince Saud offered conciliatory words to Iran, laced with coded
criticism. "We have no inhibitions about the role of Iran," he
said. "It is a large country. It wants to play a leading role in
the region, and it has every right to do so. It is an historic
country. But if you want to reach for leadership, you have to make
sure that those you are leading are having their interests taken
care of and not damaged."
Saudi Arabia has privately urged Iran to stop enriching uranium, in
compliance with United Nations resolutions and lay to rest any
suggestion that it is seeking nuclear weapons. Prince Saud called
for a "Middle East free of nuclear weapons" with "no exceptions for
anybody, be it Israel or Iran".
Asked whether the kingdom would consider seeking nuclear weapons of
its own if Iran managed to acquire a bomb, Prince Saud replied: "We
have made it very clear that we are not going down that road under
any circumstances."
He paused for a moment, before adding, "under any foreseeable
circumstances".
--------------
Teheran backs Arab peace plan, say Saudis
By Tim Butcher, Middle East Correspondent
The Telegraph (UK), 07/03/2007
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/
main.jhtml;jsessionid=QB0FXOE2OXEAXQFIQMFSFF4AVCBQ0IV0?xml=/news/
2007/03/05/wiran05.xml
Saudi Arabia claimed an important diplomatic breakthrough yesterday
when it said Iran had agreed to support an Arab peace plan to end
the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.
King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia greets Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who
arrived at Riyadh airport for talks
By securing Teheran's apparent backing for the peace plan, which
dates from 2002 and envisages a Palestinian state on land occupied
by Israel in 1967, diplomatic pressure will mount on Tel Aviv. But
there was no official confirmation from Iran about the agreement
which would represent a significant watering-down of its
traditionally hardline position that calls for all Israeli land to
be given to Palestinians.
The official Saudi news agency announced Iran's backing after its
president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad met the Saudi leader, King Abdullah,
in a weekend summit in Riyadh.
It represented another apparent diplomatic coup for Saudi Arabia
which has been working actively in recent months to reassert itself
as the regional Sunni superpower capable of standing up to a
resurgent Shia Iran.
Saudi officials have been working hard to end the political stand
off in Lebanon and last month they brokered a historic agreement in
Mecca between the Palestinian factions, Hamas and Fatah, to forge a
unity government. The same officials also persuaded the Arab League
to hold its next summit in Saudi Arabia rather than Cairo.
In spite of the lack of public statement from Iran, the Arab League
moved promptly to develop the idea by announcing last night that
the 2002 Arab Peace Plan would be officially relaunched this month.
Amr Moussa, the secretary general of the league, rejected calls
from Israel to remove some clauses from the plan, especially those
dealing with the right of Palestinian refugees to return to land
lost to Israel not just in 1967 but also in 1948 when the Jewish
state was founded.
"The Arab peace initiative expresses an Arab consensus and will not
be redrafted as demanded by some foreign powers," Mr Moussa told a
summit of Arab foreign ministers in Cairo. "Manoeuvring and
watering down (the initiative) will be a strategic mistake. It
perhaps will lead to new bloodshed."
The peace plan will now be tabled at an Arab League summit due to
be held in Saudi Arabia this month.
Last week, Israeli newspapers quoted Tzipi Livni, the Israeli
foreign minister, as saying Israel would not accept the Arab peace
plan as it is and asked to drop any reference to the right of the
Palestinians displaced in the 1948 Middle-East war to return to
their homes inside Israel.
Mr Moussa reiterated that Israel should give back the West Bank and
Gaza, territories it seized in the 1967 war, and allow Palestinian
refugees to return. If the Arab League summit can achieve full
consensus on the 2002 peace plan then Israel will face under heavy
diplomatic pressure.
With America desperate for support from moderate Arab nations for
its continued presence in Iraq, Washington might be tempted to back
the 2002 peace plan.
The key attraction is that it would promise a pan-Arab acceptance
of the right of Israel to exist, something that has not happened
since 1948.
Jordan's leader, King Abdullah II, used a national television
address to heap further pressure on Israel saying it must choose
between the mentality of "Israel, the fortress" or "living in peace
and security with its neighbours".
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