AMMAN, 27 March 2007 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice could be carrying proposals for pushing forward the Arab-Israeli peace process, but governments of the region should avert “excessive optimism” as to the outcome of the new US round of diplomacy, Arab politicians and analysts said yesterday.
They pointed out that the time was “ripe” for putting pressure on the US administration to exert serious efforts toward the conclusion of a peaceful settlement between Israelis and Palestinians, given Washington’s “plight” in Iraq and the standoff with Iran.
“We have to avoid excessive optimism regarding what may come out of Rice’s new tour,” Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee at Jordan’s lower house of Parliament, Mohammad Abu Hudaib, told Arab News.
“However, we do believe that the Arabs can put pressure on the United States to do something at this juncture, because Washington is in a state of crisis in Iraq and, therefore, it needs their help to come out of this plight,” he said.
Abu Hudaib considered Israeli and US attitudes toward the newly forged Palestinian coalition government as “non-reassuring”.
He alluded to Israel’s avowed refusal to deal with the new Palestinian Cabinet and Washington’s declaration that it would only deal with the non-Hamas ministers. The US secretary of state met on Saturday in the Egyptian city of Aswan with foreign ministers of Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.
Addressing a press conference earlier Sunday, Rice sidestepped a question about the nature of moves the United States intended to carry out to push forward the Middle East peace process. But she said it would try to develop a “common ground” between the Palestinians and Israelis for implementing the Quartet’s road map.
An address that was delivered by Jordan’s King Abdallah before the two houses of the US Congress on March 8 appeared to be the catalyst for Rice’s new Middle East tour, Arab diplomats said. The monarch then urged the United States to play a “historic role” toward the conclusion of a Palestinian-Israeli peaceful settlement, warning all parties will be “at risk” in case a solution leading to the setting up of an independent Palestinian state did not materialize.
“Abdallah’s address was designed to alert the US legislators to the fact that the Palestinian question, which represents the core of all conflicts in the region, should be given priority over the situation in Iraq,” Abu Hudaib said.
The Aswan meeting comes ahead of the Arab summit conference scheduled for today in Riyadh, where Arab leaders are expected to relaunch the Arab Peace Initiative that was adopted for the first time by the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002.
Israeli leaders have demanded an amendment of the Arab blueprint, and Arab editorialists and commentators expected Rice to exercise pressure on Arab leaders to introduce certain changes into the Arab peace plan at the Riyadh summit.
“I don’t believe Arab leaders will accept any pressures to change the Arab initiative,” Abu Hudaib said, citing the “difficult situation” faced by the US administration due to pressures by the Congress to pull out from Iraq.
The Arab peace plan envisages extending recognition to Israel by all Arab states only after it pulls out from all Arab territories it occupied in the 1967 six-day war, including East Jerusalem. Israel wants to normalize ties with Arab countries before committing itself to any territorial concessions.
Taher Adwan, editor in chief of the daily newspaper Al-Arab Al-Yawm indicated that he was inclined to believe that Arab leaders would reject any US pressures to change the Arab initiative. “Washington used to put pressures on Arab leaders ahead of any new summit, but there are precedents where Arab summits did not respond to such dictations,” he said.
Adwan discerned a “different US attitude this time, as far as the Palestinian-Israeli peace process is concerned”. “However, Rice’s visit to the region ahead of the Riyadh summit gives the conference added significance and should prompt Arab leaders to adopt strong positions that affect the US agenda and forces it to change course in the right direction,” he said.
One of the impressions widely perceived in the Arab world is that the US secretary of state will be seeking support in the West’s standoff with Iran over its nuclear file. “I cannot exclude this as part of the US maneuver, but any skilful politician must come up with the conclusion that any war against Iran will be catastrophic for the entire region,” Abu Hudaib said.
