Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, right, issues a statement with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa in Algiers on Sunday. (EPA)

ALGIERS, 21 March 2005 — The Arab summit will not accept Jordan’s proposal for normalizing relations with Israel, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said yesterday.

The original proposal had dropped the traditional Arab call for recognizing Israel in exchange for the Jewish state’s withdrawal from land it has occupied since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War.

“If Israel implements all its commitments, all the Arab countries will be ready to normalize relations with Israel. We are not going to move even 1 millimeter away from this,” Moussa told reporters after a meeting of Arab foreign ministers in the Algerian capital.

Algerian Foreign Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem concurred with Moussa, telling their joint press conference that the two-day summit of 22 Arab nations, which begins tomorrow, “will not be the summit of normalization.”

Asked about reports that Morocco was going to recognize Israel, Moussa said: “This will be a reason for a lot of indignation and, if what Shalom is saying is correct, I think Israel doesn’t deserve it.”

Algeria’s Belkhadem said the diplomats who were drafting the summit’s resolutions were working on a text to “revive and reaffirm the Arab peace initiative (in Beirut), according to the priorities which are spelled out in the initiative, so that people will know that there is no interpretation.”

The peace initiative endorsed at the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002 said Arab states were prepared to establish full diplomatic relations with Israel in exchange for the country’s full withdrawal from occupied Arab territory, the creation of a Palestinian state, and a settlement of the Palestinian refugee issue.

Jordan’s proposal quickly drew strong criticism from other Arab countries, who saw it as giving too much to Israel for little gain. On Saturday, Arab foreign ministers meeting in Algiers amended the proposal to reaffirm the traditional “land for peace” formula.

Diplomats said the adjustments brought the proposal in line with the principles of the Beirut summit.

Meanwhile, Israeli Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz has given the green light for the construction of more than 3,500 new homes in the West Bank settlement of Maale Adumim, east of Jerusalem, public radio said yesterday.

A Jerusalem newspaper had reported Friday that the Israeli authorities were preparing to revive plans to link Maale Adumim to Jewish settlements in Arab East Jerusalem as the government presses plans to withdraw from the Gaza Strip over settler opposition.

Also, Israel’s handover of a second West Bank city, intended as a gesture to strengthen Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, may be delayed after talks hit a snag yesterday over security arrangements.

Shaul Mofaz told reporters earlier yesterday that Israel would transfer security control over Tulkarm to the Palestinian Authority today.

But talks on the transfer between local military commanders hit a snag over Israel’s refusal to give Palestinians control of several villages near Tulkarm which were under their authority before the Palestinian uprising began 4-1/2 years ago.

“I hope that things will be resolved soon,” said Said Abu Fasha, commander of Palestinian security forces in Tulkarm.

He said political leaders from both sides would try to resolve the dispute and local commanders would meet again today. He did not rule out the possibility the transfer might take place later in the day.

The transfer was seen as a gesture to Abbas after he won a commitment last week from about a dozen militant factions to extend until the end of this year a de facto truce that preceded his meeting with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon at a Feb. 8 summit.

Israeli commanders were refusing to cede control of two villages near Tulkarm which were launching pads for a Palestinian bombing that killed five Israelis at a Tel Aviv nightclub last month, Israeli security sources said. Israel had promised on the eve of the Feb. 8 peace summit to withdraw its forces from five West Bank cities it had surrounded and frequently raided during the Palestinian uprising.

It handed the West Bank city of Jericho to Palestinian security control last Wednesday after resolving several minor disputes that cropped up before and during the transfer.

Israel’s network of checkpoints, restricting Palestinian travel across the West Bank, is one of the most hated symbols of Israeli occupation for the 2.3 million Palestinians who live in the territory. Israel calls the roadblocks a security necessity.