JEDDAH/CAIRO, 28 February — Crown Prince Abdullah, deputy premier and commander of the National Guard, yesterday had an hour-long meeting with European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana here. They discussed the crown prince’s proposal which, if implemented, would see Israel withdraw from Arab territory it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war and win the Arab world’s recognition in return.

Solana said that the crown prince expects an Arab League summit next month to back his plan. “He (the prince) has said that he is fully determined to move forward with his ideas that he thinks may bring peace to the region, that he is going to coordinate his ideas with the Arab countries...and he expects at the Arab League summit they will be approved,” Solana said in Cairo after his brief visit to the Kingdom.

The EU envoy gave no further details of the peace plan, but said: “He (the crown prince) maintains what he has (said) about the...normalization of the relations of the Arab world with Israel for a full withdrawal. The details of that he wants first to...consult with the Arab leaders in the context of the Arab League so that at the end of the process, that means by the 28th (of March when the Arab League summit ends) it could be approved unanimously by the leaders of the Arab world.”

Solana was the first Western envoy to discuss Crown Prince Abdullah’s proposal. He told Solana his plan arose from his deep concern about the Palestinian-Israeli fighting, according to Solana’s spokeswoman Cristina Gallach. “He considers the situation to be critical and that the region was going through a crucial time,” Gallach quoted the crown prince as saying in the meeting.

“He said he was determined to push forward with his ideas and would work with the Arab League to turn it into an initiative to be considered by next month’s Arab summit in Beirut,” Gallach said. Crown Prince Abdullah, she said, asked for the EU’s support and Solana pledged it.

Speaking in Washington Tuesday, the Kingdom’s foreign policy adviser Adel Al-Jubeir said the Saudi leader’s proposal was a vision and not a blueprint for borders between Israel and the Arabs. “We are not in the real estate or zoning business. It’s really up to Israel, the Palestinians, Lebanon and Syria to negotiate, because it’s their land,” he said. “The idea is to send a signal to the Israeli public that peace is possible.”

In Cairo Solana will meet with Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa and President Hosni Mubarak today, according to Gallach. Moussa called on Israel to show good faith toward the Saudi initiative. Israel should “take serious steps to prove that it is disposed to react to this initiative in a positive manner, and without evasiveness,” Moussa said at a joint news conference with visiting Danish Foreign Minister Per Stig Moeller.

At the United Nations, Arab delegates put off submitting a resolution on the Middle East crisis to the UN Security Council. “We did not submit a document,” Yemen’s UN ambassador, Abdallah Al-Ashtal, said. He said it was now up to the Palestinians to conduct further talks with Council members. Ashtal, head of the Arab group at the United Nations, said it was too soon for all 22 members to take a common position on Crown Prince Abdullah’s proposal.

As the peace initiative was discussed in the corridors of power, violence raged in the West Bank. Israeli soldiers shot dead three Palestinians as they infiltrated Israel across the Egyptian border, hours after an Israeli man was killed by a Palestinian in East Jerusalem and a Palestinian man was killed in clashes in the West Bank.

A Palestinian woman set off explosives inside a car, killing herself and wounding three policemen at a roadblock in the West Bank.