ALGIERS, March 20, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Arab foreign ministers, setting the stage for the Arab summit on March 22-23, agreed Sunday, March 20, a new draft of a Jordanian Middle East peace plan after the original text caused seismic waves.

“We agreed a new formula. We have used the same language,” as in the Saudi-sponsored plan that was adopted by the Beirut Arab summit in 2002,” Palestinian Foreign Minister Nasser Al-Qidwa was quoted as saying by Agence France-Presse (AFP).

The opposition to the Jordanian initiative stemmed from a feeling that it diluted the peace conditions Israel must meet and promoted normal relations with Tel Aviv before it met its peace commitments.

“Nothing has changed in the new wording relative to what was in the Beirut declaration concerning [occupied East] Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees,” Al-Qidwa stressed.

The compromise version offers Israel a comprehensive peace deal in exchange for a complete withdrawal from territories occupied during the 1967 war and proposes a “just” solution to the issue of the Palestinian refugees’ right of return.

King Abdullah II of Jordan, who has decided not to attend the summit, said last week that Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia, would revive the Beirut plan, adapting it from its initial version to ensure it was better received by Israelis, who had rejected it.

The text of the original Jordanian proposal called for not linking the normalization of relations with Israel with the full withdrawal form the occupied territories occupied in the 1967 war, but rather with the planned Israeli pullout from the Gaza Strip in July.

Arab leaders, at the Beirut summit, unanimously offered Israel normal relations if it withdrew from the territory it occupied in the 1967 war and let the Palestinians set up an independent state with occupied Al-Quds (East Jerusalem) as its capital. Israel rejected the offer.

“There was opposition from most of the ministers to the Jordanian proposal,” said Hadjar.

The amendment came after the original text faced fierce opposition from a majority of the Arab ministers on Saturday, March 19, though it was warmly welcomed by Israel.

“There was opposition from most of the ministers to the Jordanian proposal,” the Algerian ambassador to the Arab League, Abdelkader Hadjar, told Reuters.

“The initiative never died to be revived,” added Syria’s Deputy Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moalem.

Yemeni Foreign Minister Abu Bakr Al-Qurabi told IslamOnline.net that there was no need now to normalize relations with Israel.

“The Arab division plays well into the hands of Israel as it serves its settlement policy,” he said.

“Normalization has been imposed on some Arab countries like Egypt and Jordan through peace agreements with Israel, while other countries jumped on the normalization bandwagon voluntarily because it served their interests,” Qurabi added.

The principal sticking points were “vague, confusing and insufficient” proposals over the future status of Al-Quds and of Palestinian refugees, an Arab diplomat, who requested anonymity, told AFP.

Palestinians want Al-Quds, occupied by Israel in the 1967 war, to be the capital of their future state.

They also want compatriots who fled or were driven from their homes during the conflict that followed the 1948 creation of Israel on the rubbles of Palestine to be allowed to return.

Israel firmly opposes both rights.

Israeli Welcome

“We have often said Jordan could not be the first to take the initiative, but this time it has proved the contrary,” said Peres.

Israel showered the original Jordanian proposal with praise, hoping Arab leaders would endorse it to prove they are “peace-loving.”

“The simple fact that Jordan has suggested this kind of proposal marks the beginning of change in the Arab world,” a senior official in the office of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told AFP.

“It's not yet ground breaking, but it's progress. It remains to be seen whether the moderate countries will manage to set the tone during this summit,” he added.

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres also applauded the Jordanian proposal.

“We have often said Jordan could not be the first to take the initiative, but this time it has proved the contrary,” he told the Israeli public radio.

“The Arab League must decide whether it's a league of peace or of continuing the conflict... It can't impose its will on Israel, just as we can't impose our will on it,” Peres argued.

The Jordanian initiative followed some recent progress in relations between Israel and both Amman and Cairo.

Egypt and Jordan have recently sent back their ambassadors to Tel Aviv for the first time in four years.