Egyptian officials said yesterday that America’s Mideast envoy has urged Arab countries to reopen Israeli diplomatic missions and take other steps to normalize relations immediately as incentives for the Jewish state to revive the peace process with Palestinians.
George Mitchell, who is in Cairo meeting with senior Egyptian officials after two days of talks with Israeli and Palestinian representatives, said Israel and the Arab world have a responsibility to take “meaningful steps” toward peace. “We all share obligations to help create conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations to achieve a two-state solution,” said Mitchell yesterday after meeting with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit.
President Barack Obama’s administration has been pushing all sides to increase efforts to achieve “comprehensive peace” between Israel, an independent Palestinian state and the broader Arab world. But Arab countries, which launched a collective peace initiative in 2002, have been reluctant to take additional steps without first getting something from Israel.
Israel’s new government has shown little willingness to make concessions. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has so far refused to concede to US demands that he stop settlement construction in the West Bank and commit to the creation of a Palestinian state — a key demand in the Arab peace initiative, which was relaunched in 2007.
Netanyahu is scheduled to deliver a major policy speech on Sunday in which aides say he is likely to finally come out in favor of Palestinian statehood, which could help push the peace process forward. But they say he will also attach a number of conditions to his endorsement, including that Palestinians first recognize Israel as a Jewish homeland and agree not to have an army.
Mitchell has been pushing the peace process from the Arab side as well, urging countries to take “confidence-building measures” to help convince Netanyahu to resume negotiations, said Egyptian officials, speaking on condition of anonymity. They said Washington’s proposals include reopening Israeli diplomatic and trade missions in several Arab capitals that were closed in retaliation for Israel’s response to the Palestinian uprising in 2000, known as the second intifada.
Morocco, Oman, Qatar and Tunisia opened the missions after the 1993 Oslo Accords between Israel and the Palestinians. Egypt and Jordan, the only two Arab countries who have made peace with Israel, already have functioning diplomatic and trade missions.
Mitchell also proposed that Arab states allow Israeli commercial planes to fly in their air space and grant entry to Israeli tourists.
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