Prince Turki rejects normalization before occupied lands retrieved

Saudi Arabia to U.S. Congressmen: Confidence-building attempts did not succeed, settlement of dispute with Israel requires focus on final status solution

President Mubarak urges Netanyahu to stop settlement, start negotiations to set final borders of Palestinian state

Israel continues settlement building, Jerusalem Judaization projects

Preparations for nuke negotiations between Iran, six nations next month

Prince Turki Alfaisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, the former envoy to the U.S. and a member of the Saudi royal family, said that Saudi Arabia won’t engage Israel until it ends its occupation of Arab territories.

“Saudi Arabia is the birthplace of Islam, the custodian of its two holy mosques, the world’s energy superpower and the de facto leader of the Arab and Muslim worlds -- that is why our recognition is greatly prized by Israel,” Prince Turki wrote in an opinion column in the New York Times newspaper on Monday.

“For all those same reasons, the kingdom holds itself to higher standards of justice and law,” he said. “It must therefore refuse to engage Israel until it ends its illegal occupation of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and the Golan Heights as well as Shebaa Farms in Lebanon.”

Israel captured the territories in the Six-Day War in 1967. Prince Turki said Israel ignored two Arab peace proposals put forward by Saudi Arabia, one by the late King Fahd in 1982 and the other by King Abdullah in 2002.

The 2002 peace initiative, endorsed by 22 countries, proposed peace between Israel and Arab states in exchange for a full Israeli withdrawal from occupied territories. In January, King Abdullah said the plan is in danger of being withdrawn.

Egypt and Israel signed a peace accord in 1979. Jordan became the second Arab country to have a treaty with the Jewish state in 1994.

Prince Turki said if Israel wants peace it should start with the “immediate removal” of all Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

“Only this would show the world that Israel is serious about peace and not just stalling as it adds more illegal settlers to those already occupying Palestinian land,” he said.

The Obama administration has asked Israel to halt all construction activity in the West Bank to advance the peace process and Palestinians have said they won’t negotiate unless Israel does so. There are almost 300,000 Israelis living in 121 settlements in the West Bank, where Palestinians want to create a state.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has refused to agree to a total building freeze, saying construction must continue in existing Jewish communities in the West Bank.

Netanyahu has also said his government wouldn’t agree to any division of Jerusalem. Palestinians have said that in any final agreement, Israel must cede the eastern half of the city to serve as the capital of a Palestinian state.

“Until Israel heeds President Obama’s call for the removal of all settlements, the world must be under no illusion that Saudi Arabia will offer what the Israelis most desire -- regional recognition,” Prince Turki wrote. “We are willing to embrace the hands of any partner in peace, but only after they have released their grip on Arab lands.”

The former Saudi envoy, born in 1945, is son of the late King Faisal bin Abdulaziz, who ruled Saudi Arabia from 1964 until 1975 when he was assassinated. Prince Turki, a graduate of Georgetown University was the kingdom’s longest serving intelligence chief, holding the position for 25 years. He was previously also ambassador to the U.K. His brother Prince Saudi Alfaisal has been the kingdom’s foreign minister since 1975.

Meanwhile, Saudi Ambassador to the United States Adel bin Ahmed Al-Jubeir responded to a July 31 Congressional Letter to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on Peace in the Middle East.

Ambassador Jubeir said, "I have the honor of responding to the letter you co-signed addressed to the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, dated July 31, 2009, in which you noted the Arab Peace Initiative and encouraged the Kingdom to make a dramatic gesture toward Israel.

"I wish, at the outset, to thank you for your interest in peace between the Arab countries and Israel and emphasize that the Kingdom shares your goal. Over the years, Saudi Arabia has taken clear positions that attest to its desire to see this long-standing conflict resolved equitably and permanently.

"The basis for ending the Arab-Israeli conflict is clear. It has been enshrined in numerous international resolutions, and highlighted in virtually every peace conference convened over the past three decades. Essentially, it centers on Israel ending its occupation of the territories taken in 1967, including Jerusalem, establishing an independent Palestinian state, and providing for a just settlement for Palestinian refugees. In exchange, Israel shall receive full recognition, a formal end to the conflict, peace, security and normal relations with all Arab countries.

"The Arab countries accepted this formula as a basis for a settlement when they unanimously adopted the Arab Peace Initiative at the Beirut Summit in 2002. This bold and historic initiative was also adopted by the Islamic countries at the Makkah Summit in December 2005, and reiterated by the Arab League at subsequent Arab Summits, including, most recently, at the 2009 Doha Summit. "Israel has not. Nor has Israel accepted the principle that it must end its occupation of all Arab territories. Instead, it continues to seek to divert attention from the heart of the matter – a permanent and just peace that ends the occupation that began in 1967 – and to focus on tertiary issues. Further, Israel continues to build settlements in defiance of international law and to strengthen its hold on the Palestinian Territories, when it should understand, as then-Crown Prince, now King, Abdullah bin Abdulaziz stated in his address to the Arab Summit in Beirut in 2002, that “peace and the retention of occupied Arab territories are incompatible and impossible to reconcile or achieve.

"With regard to confidence-building measures, gestures and a step-by-step approach to the peace process, I would like to reiterate the view articulated by the Kingdom’s Foreign Minister, Prince Saud Al-Faisal, that such an approach is unlikely to achieve success. It has not succeeded over the past three decades, and, we believe, will not today. The history and track-record of such an approach is clear, as the following examples illustrate:

"In 1979, the Camp David Accords were signed between Egypt and Israel. At the time, there were approximately 5,000 Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories. Then-Prime Minister Begin agreed to a moratorium on settlements.

"In 1991, when the Madrid Peace Conference was convened, the number of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian Territories exceeded 100,000. At the conference, bilateral talks were launched between Israel and its neighbors – Jordan, the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon. Subsequently, multilateral talks were initiated in a number of areas involving most of the regional countries, including the Kingdom, as a means to promote confidence.

"After the signing of the Oslo Accords in 1993, Jordan signed a peace treaty with Israel in 1994, the GCC countries lifted their secondary and tertiary boycott of Israel, and contacts between Israel and a number of Arab countries were initiated or intensified to further build confidence. But these positive steps were not reciprocated. A recent editorial in the Financial Times summarized the situation during the 1990’s aptly when it stated: “In 1992-1996, at the height of the peace process, Israel reaped a peace dividend without concluding a peace.

"Diplomatic recognition of Israel doubled, from 85 to 161 countries, exports doubled and foreign direct investment increased six-fold; per capita income in the occupied territories, however, fell in the same period by more than a third, while the number of settlers expanded by half.

By the time the Annapolis Peace Conference was convened by President Bush in 2007, the number of settlers exceeded 200,000. The Arab countries attended the Annapolis Conference with the understanding that settlement activity would stop, that what Israel calls illegal settlement outposts would be dismantled, that check-points would be removed, that construction of the barrier wall would stop, and that Palestinian political prisoners would be released. Israel, however, continued to build settlements and did not remove illegal outposts. The number of Palestinian prisoners did not decrease substantially, and the checkpoints, which complicate the movement of Palestinians within their own territory, were essentially still in place a year after the Annapolis Conference.

"Given the above history, it is reasonable to conclude that an incremental approach, or one built on temporary confidence-building measures or gestures, will not work. It is our firm view that resolution of this conflict does require outlining the final settlement at the outset, followed by prompt resumption of negotiations on all final status issues – borders, Jerusalem, water, security and refugees – with a deadline set for their early conclusion.

"The focus must be on the final settlement and on the final peace, not on an incremental process. This will make the final outcome clear to all parties, and thereby undermine the ability of extremists on both sides to delay or derail the movement to peace. It is also absolutely imperative for the United States to play an active and robust role in the negotiations, as history has shown.

"I appreciate your interest in achieving a real and durable peace in the Middle East, and I hope this letter clarifies the Kingdom’s position regarding the steps we believe are necessary to effectively move toward peace."

Meanwhile, A report issued by the Palestinian Jerusalem Center for Economic & Social Rights (JCSER)’s Research & Documentation Unit accused the Israeli government of taking unprecedented measures to Judaize the city of Jerusalem through a number of projects and programs in which settlement societies, which are largely funded by the Israeli government and Jewish societies abroad, especially in the United States, Canada & Australia, take part in the implementation of these projects.

The report noted that the intensive, accelerating activity to Judaize East Jerusalem is currently focused in four main circles, of which the Old City constitutes its nucleus, reaching up to the governorates of Ramallah & Bethlehem.

First: The Old City: The report revealed amazing data about the volume of the settlement activity and the Judaization efforts carried out by Israeli government through the Jerusalem Municipality and Jewish settlement societies, including “Ateret Kohanim”, which is supported by the Israeli Ministry of Building & Housing. This is in addition to the efforts carried out by East Jerusalem Development Company and the Ministry of Archeology to Judaize the city of Jerusalem.

The report referred to the excavations carried out in the Al-Aqsa Mosque, spreading outside the walls of the Old City southwards in Silwan, and in different parts inside the wall, especially Burj Al-Laqlaq, Al-Wad Street, Bab Al-Khalil (Jaffa Gate), Bab Al-Asbat (Lion Gate) forming an advanced network of tunnels connected with more than 70 settlement nucleuses inside the Old City, ending up at the Al-Aqsa Mosque that constitutes the heart of the Old City.

In this context, the report referred to the completion of the construction of a Jewish synagogue at the crossroad of Al-Wad Street with the Wailing Wall, one of the largest Jewish synagogues inside Jerusalem’s walls. It is 50 meters far from the Al-Aqsa Mosque & Haram Ash-Sharif. The construction of another large Jewish synagogue adjacent to a mosque in “Ash-Sharaf Quarter” or known as the ‘Jewish Quarter” has begun.

There has been a remarkable increase in the number of Jewish settlers inside the walls of the Old City, either in the “Jewish Quarter” with a population of approximately 3,000 Jewish settlers, or in the settlement nucleuses (72) built by Jewish societies in Palestinian properties taken over by Jewish settlers. Part of these nucleuses includes Talmud Schools in which hundreds of religious schools students study.

With this settlement expansion, the report refers to the economic pressures and the expulsion of Palestinian residents of the Old City who suffer from extremely difficult living crisis due to the increasing unemployment and poverty rates, and the accumulation of debts and taxes, especially the “Arnona” municipal tax.

The report noted that merchants and shop-owners in the Old City are affect the most by the deteriorating economic conditions and the economic recession in the Holy City of Jerusalem. As a result, some 400 shop-owners, mostly in the markets of Ad-Dabagha, An-Nasara & Silseleh Street, have been forced to shut down, and turn into alternative crafts.

The industry of tourism has directly been affected by the deteriorating situation.

The report estimates the volume of the tax debts imposed on the merchants of the Old City, such as income tax and “Arnona” at tens of millions of shekels. Hundreds of cases have been rejected by the Jerusalem Municipality, requesting citizens the payment of millions of shekels of “Arnona Tax”.

The report notes that a growing number of Palestinian Jerusalemites are expected to leave the Old City due to the housing crisis and the over-crowdedness that many Jerusalemite families suffer from. The crisis has been aggravated with the reverse return to the Old City over the past few years, due to the construction of the Apartheid Wall and the military checkpoints erected around Jerusalem, thus severely restricting the movement of citizens.

The report noted that over the past two months, there has been an increase in the number of Palestinians coming to the Old City in order to reside on the eve of the population census scheduled to start next month. This constituted another pressure on the residents and doubled the economic obligations for the people coming to reside inside the municipal boundaries of Jerusalem, due to the sharp increase in the rents, resulting from the huge demand for the apartments and the sharp deterioration in the dollar.

The report attributed the severe housing crisis in the Old City to another factor, which is the Municipality’s policy to confront citizens’ attempts to expand and built, by imposing strict restrictions on them and on the renovation works. On the other hand, it allows religious and Jewish settlement societies to build and renovate, and approves the construction schemes to build small Jewish quarters inside the Old City of Jerusalem. Jewish Quarter planned to be built in Burj Al-Laqlaq, northern Al-Aqsa Mosque.

With regard to the Judaization plans carried out by the Israeli government in the surrounding of the Old City, especially in Silwan, Sheikh Jarrah, Mt. of Olives, Jabal Al-Mukabber & Ath-Thori, the report noted that the national park project carried out by the Jerusalem Municipality in the surrounding of the Old City and the completion of “Bab Ar-Rabab” located between “Silwan” & ‘Ath-Thori” will become an area of tourist attraction.

In this regard, the report noted that the Jerusalem Municipality, in cooperation with “Al-Ad” Jewish settlement society & East Jerusalem Development Company are in the process of carrying out “Al-Wad Street’ development project. The project is expected to enhance connection between settlement nucleuses (37) in “Silwan” and the “Jewish Quarter” inside the Old City and the “Wailing Wall”.

An Israeli scheme to build a Jewish quarter in the heart of Sheikh Jarrah was recently submitted to specialized committees in the Municipality for approval. It is expected that the quarter will spread to “Qabaneh Um Haron”, western Sheikh Jarrah, reaching up to “Sanhadria”, to the west of Street no. (1).

Some 400 settlement units will be built in “Karm Al-Mufti” and “Sheppard Hotel” area adjacent to the residences of Al-Kurd and the 27 families in Sheikh Jarrrah. The construction will start after the approval of the municipality’s specialized committees.

In the settlement quarter in “Ras Al-Amud”, known as “Maiale Hazitim”, the municipal committees are studying a scheme to expand the quarter and to build dozens of new apartments.

Meanwhile, the construction of another Jewish settlement quarter, known as “Nof Zion” continues on the skirts of Jabal Al-Mukabber, southern Old City. More than 200 settlement units are expected to be built, in addition to a group of hotels and restaurants, thus tightening the closure of the Old City and enhancing the Jewish presence inside the walls of the Old City. These quarters will be connected and turn Palestinian neighborhoods in the surrounding of the Old City into “Cantons” separated from each other.

The report referred to the increase in the pace of house demolition in East Jerusalem over the past two years. According to municipal data, some 72 houses have been demolished in different parts of Jerusalem since the beginning of 2008, while the actual number is 90 houses.

With regard to the Municipality’s policy of house demolition and building permits, further restrictions have been imposed on building permits, with doubling the penalties on building violators. During 2008 & 2007, hundreds of demolition orders have been given to Palestinian citizens. Hundreds of finds have been imposed on citizens accused of committing building violations, ranging between 50,000 shekels and 300,000 shekels.

On the other hand, there has been an intensive construction in the Jewish settlements built on Palestinian land, especially in the settlements of “Pizgat Ze’ev”, “Neve Yacoub”, “Jabal Abu Ghneim” and “Ma’ale Adumim”. More than 4,000 new settlement units are being built in “Ma’ale Adumim”, in addition to the construction of tourist and industrial zones, network of advanced roads and tunnels, and the railway project, which under construction. The railway is expected to connect the settlements of northern Jerusalem with the city center.

The report concludes that the Israeli projects currently taking place in an unprecedented manner will decide the demographic and political future of East Jerusalem. It warns that the Palestinian neighborhoods surrounding the Old City of Jerusalem are threatened with shrinkage, at the time more than 170,000 Palestinian Jerusalemites in the most-densely populated areas in Jerusalem (Ar-ram, Dahiet Al-Barid, Shu’fat Refugee Camp, Dahiet As-Salam & Ras Khamis) have completely been isolated by the construction of the Apartheid Wall.

In Cairo, Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak urged Israel to halt "all settlement activity" and warned of the dangers it posed in Jerusalem, in talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Cairo on Sunday.

Mubarak "called on Israel to stop all settlement activity, including 'natural growth' settlements," presidential spokesman Suleiman Awad said.

The president "also urged (Israel) to stop attempts to Judaize Jerusalem, warning of the dangerous consequences to peace efforts and highlighting the sensitivity of the Jerusalem issue to the Arab and Islamic worlds," Awad said.

Netanyahu met Mubarak over "iftar," the meal ending the dawn-to-dusk fast during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan that was also attended by Egypt's intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, before returning to Jerusalem.

His brief visit came amid a renewed diplomatic push to kick-start the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell visited Israel.

On the peace process, Mubarak "called for negotiations on the final borders of a Palestinian state which would pave the way for an agreement on all final status issues, within a defined time frame," Awad said.

Both sides remain deeply divided on the most sensitive issues of their decades-old conflict -- final borders, the status of Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees and Israeli settlements.

"I hope that we will succeed in reducing the gaps," Netanyahu said at the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem earlier on Sunday. "Maybe we will bridge them, so that we can move the process forward."

He last met Mubarak on May 11 in Sharm el-Sheikh on his first trip abroad since returning to power.

Egypt and the United States hope to see a resumption of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians, suspended since the conflict in the Gaza Strip at the turn of the year.

Washington has sought to fast-track a peace process that would lead to the creation of a Palestinian state alongside Israel.

But both sides have rebuffed the US call for goodwill gestures that would see a freeze to settlement construction in return for Arab states beginning to normalize ties with Israel.

Arab countries have said normalization will only come after substantive peace talks or a settlement to the conflict and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas insists he will not meet Netanyahu before a complete end to settlement construction.

Earlier this month, Netanyahu authorized the construction of 455 new homes in settlements in the occupied West Bank. Washington criticized the move as "inconsistent" with the peace process, but has also said it does not consider a settlement freeze a condition for revived peace talks.

In Jerusalem, Mitchell said Washington shared a "sense of urgency" and was aiming to reach agreement on any outstanding issues during his trip.

"It is our intention to conclude this phase of our discussions in the very near future... (to) enable us to move on to the next and really the more important phase," he said after meeting President Shimon Peres.

The outcome of Mitchell's talks in Israel is likely to determine whether a proposed three-way meeting goes ahead between Netanyahu, Abbas and US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Mitchell was to meet Netanyahu on Monday and Abbas on Tuesday. It was not clear whether he would visit other countries in the region.

In addition to the peace process, Egypt has been brokering indirect talks on a prisoner exchange between Israel and the Islamist Hamas movement which rules Gaza that would see the release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, seized by Gaza militants more than three years ago.

Germany has also joined the mediation efforts. Cairo has also been mediating between rival Palestinian factions Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas.

Egypt has been Israel's main Arab interlocutor since the two signed a peace treaty in 1979, but they remain at odds over the peace process.

Palestinian officials said that Egypt last week presented a new proposal to Fatah and Hamas, which suggests holding elections in mid-2010 and overhauling the structure of security services.

On the other hand, Yukiya Amano, Japan's ambassador to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), has been formally appointed as its new Director-General to succeed Mohamed ElBaradei, who steps down at the end of November after 12 years in office.

The 150 member-states of the U.N. nuclear agency approved Amano by acclamation on the first day of the agency's annual week-long general conference. He will take charge from December 1 and initially serve for a period of four years until end-November 2013.

Earlier in July, Amano was chosen by the IAEA's 35-member board of governors--its main decision-making body, but his appointment had to be formally adopted by all 150 member-states at the general conference.

After being sworn in, Amano, 62, described his appointment as "truly a great honor." Humbly accepting the appointment to the prominent post and expressing his sincere gratitude to the member-states for their support and trust, he told the assembly that he would also like to take this opportunity to express his profound respect to Dr. Mohamed ElBaradei for his outstanding contribution to the agency during his 12-year tenure.

The change of guard at the global nuclear watchdog comes at a crucial time for the Vienna-based agency, despite six years of intensive investigations, has not been able to ascertain the true nature of Tehran's nuclear program. The West accuses the Islamic regime of seeking to build an atomic bomb under the guise of a civilian nuclear program, a charge which Tehran vehemently denies.

In Brussels on Tuesday, European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said talks next month between Iran and six world powers on Tehran's nuclear program will probably be held in Turkey.

The talks from October 1 will "very likely" be held in Turkey, Solana told reporters in Brussels ahead of EU foreign ministers' talks.

The five UN Security Council permanent members -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany are due to take part in the talks with Iran's top nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili.

"At this point in time, we are going to try to enter into a negotiation," said Solana, stressing the "double-track approach," -- the carrot and stick of trade, aid and sanctions.

It will be the first high-level meeting since the Obama administration took over in the United States and initiated its more open policy towards Tehran, a European diplomatic source said.

The last encounter, with the United States taking part, was in July 2008 in Geneva.

The meeting comes after Iran submitted a document to world powers laying out its position on resolving several global security problems. The text said the Islamic republic was ready to enter into negotiations on a number of issues.

Western nations are calling on Iran to halt its uranium enrichment drive which they suspect is for making atomic weapons.

Tehran denies the charges and says its nuclear program has peaceful goals.

The United States has said the new offers from Iran are "not really responsive" to concerns about its nuclear program, dampening hopes for new talks aimed at breaking a three-year impasse.

Tehran is already under three sets of UN sanctions and European diplomats said Friday that the EU could consider introducing more unilateral sanctions if the UN Security Council cannot agree to do so.

Europe and others envisage adopting fresh sanctions if the impasse persists, but are aware that reluctance from veto-wielding UN Security Council nations Russia and China could limit their effectiveness.