JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia, May 15 (IslamOnline & News Agencies) - Gulf monarchies upheld Wednesday, May 15, an Arab peace offer to Israel, rejected "violence in all its forms," and slammed Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's Likud Party for opposing Palestinian statehood.

In a statement at the end of their meeting in Saudi Arabia, Foreign Ministers of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) also urged the United States and the international community to put pressure on Israel to pull out of Palestinian lands it has reoccupied.

Ministers from Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates declared "their countries' commitment to the Arab peace initiative endorsed by the Arab summit in Beirut [in late March] as the basis of any move to achieve just and comprehensive peace," the statement, carried by Agence France-Presse (AFP), said.

Making no specific reference to the Palestinian Intifada against Israeli occupation, they reaffirmed that "peace is the Arab nation's strategic option". However, while "saluting the steadfastness of the brotherly Palestinian Arab people," they stressed the Gulf states' "rejection of violence in all its forms," according to their statement.

The statement echoed the "rejection of all forms of violence" by the leaders of Saudi Arabia, Syria and Egypt during a summit in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh Saturday, May 11.

It said the rejection of Palestinian statehood by Israel's ruling right-wing Likud would obstruct efforts to attain peace in the Middle East, which can only be achieved if a Palestinian state is set up alongside Israel.

"Such measures place obstacles on the path of peace efforts, complicate matters and contradict ongoing international attempts to achieve peace and security in the region," the statement said, in a reference to Sunday's vote by the Likud central committee against the establishment of a Palestinian state.

Regional peace and security "can only be achieved through the peaceful coexistence of two states, Palestinian and Israeli," it said.

The GCC ministers urged the United States, Russia, the European Union, the United Nations and "the whole international community" to put pressure on the Israeli government to pull out of Palestinian lands it has reoccupied "to behind the lines of September 28, 2000," that is before the Intifada.

Pressure should also be applied on Israel to "return to serious negotiations in such a way that [it would] respond to the Arab peace initiative and international efforts to achieve just and comprehensive peace in the Middle East based on U.N. resolutions," the statement said.

The extraordinary meeting of GCC chief diplomats was requested by Riyadh, at the forefront of Arab efforts to strike a peace deal since Arab states endorsed a land-for-peace proposal by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz at their Beirut summit.

The statement said Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal briefed his GCC counterparts on the Sharm el-Sheikh summit that brought together Prince Abdullah, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

Prince Saud also briefed the ministers on Abdullah's recent visit to the United States which "achieved positive results for the Palestinian cause," the statement said.

Meanwhile, Oman's minister of state for foreign affairs, Yussef bin Alawi bin Abdullah, whose country holds the rotating GCC presidency, later told reporters that Israeli leaders, chiefly those from Likud, appeared to be "swimming against the tide" by failing to respond to international peace efforts.

In contrast, he hailed what he called "new orientations" in U.S. policy on the Palestinian issue liable to help resurrect the Middle East peace process, saying Washington was "taking account of Palestinian and Arab demands."