Arab foreign ministers welcome Obama's commitment to 2-state deal, comprehensive solution in Palestine

Ministers reject Israeli settlements, Judaization of Jerusalem, support Palestinian position linking negotiations to halt of settlements

Presidents Mubarak, Abbas discuss ways to push forward peace process

Gates in Riyadh: U.S.-Saudi ties one of stability factors in region

Arab Foreign Ministers concluded an extraordinary meeting held at a request of Palestine and under the chairmanship of Ali Ahmed Karti, Sudan's Minister of State for Foreign Affairs.

Prince Saud Al-Faisal, the Foreign Minister of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, led his country's delegation to the meeting.

The meeting welcomed the U.S. administration's announcement that it was committed to a two-state solution for the Palestinian Israeli dispute according to all the agreed upon references of the peace process.

In a statement following the meeting, the Arab Foreign Ministers categorically rejected the unilateral Israeli settlement policies aiming at changing the demography and geography of the occupied Palestinian territories, including Eastern Al-Quds.

The statement called on the world community for immediate intervention to halt all Israeli measures in the occupied Palestinian territories.

It cautioned from the dangers of ignoring those Israeli practices and violations.

The meeting assigned the Arab group in New York to work for a United Nations General Assembly's issuance of a resolution assigning the International court of Justice to take up and issue a rule on the Israeli breaches of the sacred Eastern Al-Quds.

The meeting called on the Arab financial institutions and funds to accredit additional financial obligations in support of the Palestinian peoples steadfast in Al-Quds and the surroundings.

The meeting also decided to form a team of lawyers and legal experts to study all options to present charging Israeli leaders and decision-makers with war crimes before the world judiciary.

Foreign ministers of Arab League countries met in Cairo Thursday to formulate an integrated approach to resolve the Middle East crisis, besides deliberating a U.N. report on human rights' violations by Israel in the Gaza Strip during its three-week war in December-January, reports say.

At the end of an extraordinary meeting, the ministers said in a statement that they would urge the U.N.'s International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague to probe Israeli injustice, involving "violations" in annexed Arab east Jerusalem by way of expansion of Jewish settlements, confiscation of lands and demolition of homes.

The Arab League will strive "to obtain a decision from the United Nations General Assembly to task the ICJ to examine Israeli violations in Jerusalem," the statement said.

The foreign ministers also said they had decided to set up a committee of international law experts to prepare a case against Israel.

Palestinians also demand that Israel should evacuate the roughly 200,000 illegal Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem, which, they say, solely belongs to Palestinian refugees.

The ICJ, the principal judicial arm of the United Nations, issued a non-binding resolution in 2004 calling for sections of an Israeli barrier, which partly runs through the occupied West Bank, to be brought down, and for construction there to be stopped.

Israel says the barrier of concrete and steel is necessary to guard against Palestinian militant attacks, while Palestinians say it is a land-grab that undermines their future state.

Arab League (AL) Secretary General Amr Moussa on Thursday slammed the latest peace proposal made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, saying the Jewish state's settlement activity defies the principle of an independent Palestinian state.

Moussa made the remarks at a press conference after an emergency meeting of the AL foreign ministers, which focused on the issue of Jerusalem.

Moussa said Netanyahu's proposal means "rejecting establishing a Palestinian state" and thus rejecting all the previous agreements and understandings.

"We would not amend the Arab peace initiative," the head of the Cairo-based AL said. "We are committed to establishing a Palestinian state and without a Palestinian state, there is no end to the Arab-Israeli conflict."

On Monday night, Netanyahu, who spoke from Israel via satellite to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) annual conference in Washington, said: "We are prepared to resume peace negotiations without any delay, without any preconditions. The sooner, the better."

"The fresh approach that I suggest is pursuing a triple track toward peace between Israel and the Palestinians: a political track, a security track and an economic track," said the prime minister.

The first track, he said, would be the resumption of negotiations, while the economic track would involve efforts to improve the situation and prosperity of the Palestinians on the ground.

On security, Netanyahu said he would never compromise on Israel's security. But he added he wants to push ahead with the work of U.S. General Keith Dayton to train Palestinian forces in the West Bank in order to bolster Palestinian security forces.

On an upcoming meeting between U.S. President Barack Obama and Netanyahu, Moussa said there are positive expectations regarding the U.S. new policy.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu will travel to Egypt on Monday for his first trip abroad since taking office in late March, Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post reported on Thursday.

Israeli government officials said the upcoming trip is a symbolic move designed to signal the importance Netanyahu places on relations with Cairo and moderates in the Arab world.

The Arab League and Syria have shot down a US suggestion that the Arab peace initiative be changed to make it more palatable to Israel.

The 2002 peace initiative offers Israel Arab recognition, peace and normal relations in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from territory it occupied in the 1967 Middle East War, the establishment of a Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital and a just solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.

Several Arab diplomats said this week that the Americans are asking Arab states to drop demands for a right of return for Palestinian refugees and agree to either resettle them in the host countries or in the Palestinian territories.

Arab foreign ministers meeting at the Arab League headquarters in Cairo rejected the request, said Jordan’s foreign minister. “The ministers renewed their commitment to the initiative as it is without change,” Nasser Judeh said.

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Al-Muallem also rejected the idea of changing the Arab peace offer, saying: “I don’t see any justification for amending this initiative.”

At a joint news conference with the foreign ministers of Finland and Estonia, Al-Muallem said: “Is it logical that with every new Israeli government the Arabs would concede and put forth a new plan and new concessions under the slogan of a comprehensive plan?”

The minister was commenting on Jordanian King Abdullah's remark that a new “combined approach” currently under discussion with the US would have Israel, Syria, Lebanon and other nations sitting down together to try to resolve the Middle East conflict.

The talk of the new US-backed approach coincided with a visit to Damascus by Jeffrey Feltman, the State Department’s top Middle East envoy.

“We came as part of President Obama’s commitment to use diplomacy, to use dialogue in order to try to see where we can move forward, where our interests overlap, and to see where we can try to work together to bridge the differences that remain in some of our policies,” Feltman said.

He was accompanied by White House official Daniel Shapiro, both visiting Damascus for the second time since March.

Meanwhile, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas talked Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab League (AL) chief Amr Moussa separately to coordinate Arab stances to push forward the peace process with Israel.

Speaking at a news conference after talks with Mubarak, Abbas said his consultations with Mubarak were aimed to draw up a comprehensive Arab plan to solve all issues plaguing the Middle East.

"We prepared matters to make a harmony in the Arab situation and Jordanian King Abdullah II visited Washington recently speaking for the Arabs. We need to form an integrated Arab plan to solve the Middle East issue, not only the Palestinian issue but also all the occupations by Israel," said Abbas.

Both Abbas and Mubarak are scheduled to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington in the upcoming weeks.

Arab foreign ministers would hold an emergency meeting on Thursday to define the Arab position towards the Jewish state.

When asked to elaborate the "Arab plan" to be presented to Obama, Abbas said, "mainly the Arab Peace Initiative and the Road Map."

The Arab peace initiative calls on Israel to withdraw from all the lands it captured in the 1967 war in exchange for a full peace with all Arab states.

The territories Israel would have to cede comprises the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which would become the Palestinian state; the Golan Heights that would be returned to Syria; and a couple of small pockets of land where the borders of Syria, Israel and Lebanon meet. Additionally, Israel would have to give up control of Eastern Jerusalem, which would be most likely to become the Palestinian capital.

The Road Map plan was proposed by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 to end the chronic Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in April 2003, the United Nations adopted the long-awaited Road Map, which calls on the Palestinians to renounce violence and the Jewish state to halt its settlement on occupied lands.

But the plan was put into a standstill five months later due to violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups.

Regarding Israel's proposal of economic peace, security cooperation, and a settlement not based on the two-state solution, Abbas said, "economic cooperation between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel is very important but not enough."

"The political talks are essential and enough," he added, affirming that these talks can not start while settlements and outposts construction continues.

As for the Palestinian reconciliation talks, he voiced support for the Egyptian efforts, hoping that it could result in a national unity government able to shoulder the responsibilities of Gaza reconstruction and hold elections before Jan. 24.

Meanwhile, Abbas also discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian arena with AL Secretary General Moussa. Regarding an alleged plan to ask incumbent Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to form a new government that includes all Palestinian factions, Abbas said the government led by Fayyad whose resignation was not accepted would make some changes.

Also in the day, a Palestinian official said Abbas will form a new government if rival Fatah and Hamas fail to reach an agreement in the upcoming round of dialogue slated for mid May.

If the dialogue, which will convene in Cairo on May 16-19, fails, "the president will form a new government which will come up with a new strategy in dealing with Hamas and the internal Palestinian situation," said Abbas Zaki, the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon.

Zaki said the new Palestinian government is expected to be formed prior to Abbas' visit to Washington on May 28.

Earlier reports said Abbas will ask Fayyad, who now heads a Palestinian government created in the wake of Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, to form an expanded government in the West Bank in case that Cairo dialogue fails.

During the Palestinian national dialogue, which started in March, Hamas and Fatah failed to agree on the platform of a unity government to replace the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip and the Western-backed government which is based in the West Bank.

On the other hand, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates stressed the strength of ties with Saudi Arabia on a visit Wednesday designed to quell fears that Washington is moving closer to Riyadh's regional rival Iran.

"The relationship between the United States and Saudi Arabia has been one of the mainstays of stability in the Middle East for more than 60 years," Gates said at the Eskan Village military base outside the Saudi capital.

"Saudi Arabia continues to be an important partner for the US in counter-terrorism and a range of other issues."

Gates was speaking to US military personnel and civilian advisors to Saudi security forces on the final day of a two-day trip to the country, the world's leading oil exporter and a key US ally in the region.

On Tuesday he met with senior Saudi officials on the second stop of a regional trip partly aimed at assuaging worries that Washington was preparing a "grand bargain" with Tehran that would move it away from Arab powers Egypt and Saudi Arabia.

Gates said after meeting Egyptian President Mubarak in Cairo on Tuesday that Washington would proceed carefully and that no deal was imminent.

There were "some exaggerated concerns, some notion here in the region that there might be some grand bargain between the United States and Iran that would suddenly be sprung on them," he told reporters in Cairo.

Such concerns were "completely unrealistic," Gates said, pledging that Washington would consult closely with its allies and no deal would be hatched in secret.

"We will keep our friends informed about what is going so that nobody gets surprised," he said.

Egypt and Saudi Arabia have quietly expressed serious concerns about US engagement with Iran, whom they see as the most serious regional threat to stability.

"Uppermost in our minds is taking measures necessary with our partners in the region, to maintain their security and their stability in particular against Iranian subversive activities," Gates said Tuesday.

US military officials at the Eskan base emphasized the role of some 800 US military and civilian personnel in helping train and equip Saudi security forces, including a new 35,000 strong interior ministry force to guard critical infrastructure like oil and gas production facilities.

"Although you do not work in a direct combat role, your mission remains essential to America's security," Gates told them.

Gates meanwhile said he discussed with Saudi officials the possibility of Saudi Arabia taking responsibility for some of the around 100 Yemeni detainees still at the US prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Gates said he and Saudi Assistant Interior Minister for Security Prince Mohammed bin Nayef discussed the idea of placing the Yemenis into the successful Saudi terrorist rehabilitation program.

"I did raise with (Nayef) our positive impressions of the rehabilitation-repatriation program in Saudi Arabia," Gates told reporters.

Gates said no specific request was made by the United States, which is reluctant to release the Yemeni detainees back to their own country for fear they would quickly rejoin militant groups.

"It was more a general conversation about the capability and the possibility," Gates said.

He praised the Saudi program, which claims a 90 percent success rate, with only about a dozen of the former Guantanamo prisoners returning to militant or criminal activities.

"I think they have done as good or better a job of that than anybody," he said.