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Last update - 00:00 28/09/2008
Saudi FM: We oppose partial or interim solutions to Israeli-Palestinian conflict
By The Associated Press
Tags: Saudi Arabia, UN, Israel News

Arab nations will totally reject any partial or interim solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because historically such arrangements have become permanent, Saudi Arabia's foreign minister said Saturday.

While supporting current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to reach a
comprehensive final solution, Prince Saud Al Faisal said "the least that we expect from Israel during these negotiations is that it should halt all settlement operations."
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"The continuation of settlement activity in the occupied Arab territories
renders the negotiations meaningless and makes it difficult for us to convince our peoples of the feasibility and benefits of achieving peace, he said."

At a UN Security Council meeting Friday on Israeli settlements, held at Saudi Arabia's request, Saud said the settlement problem is the one issue that threatens to bring down the whole peace process.

He said that addressing it was the only way to save the peace deal brokered in Annapolis, Maryland, early this year by the administration of President George W. Bush, which set the goal of achieving a substantive peace accord by January 2009.

The Saudi foreign minister took up the issue again in his speech to the UN General Assembly's annual ministerial meeting on Saturday. Saud did not deliver the speech, as scheduled, but it was distributed and circulated to all U.N. members, said Brenda Vongova, the assembly president's assistant spokesperson.

"The Arabs have continued to affirm their commitment to a just and comprehensive peace based on international law," Saud said. "Yet no reciprocal commitment was forthcoming from Israel."

"Please allow me, on behalf of the Arab Group, to make it absolutely clear that we will totally reject any partial or interim solutions, because history has taught us that such solutions tend to become permanent," he said.

Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit said his government is involved in "painstaking efforts" to maintain a window of hope to achieve a Palestinian state. But he said Egypt is quite skeptical about the strength of the political will in Israel and the conviction of Israeli decision-makers to achieve a settlement.

Syria's Foreign Minister Walid Al-Moualem questioned what Annapolis has
achieved.

"Nonetheless," he said, Syria entered indirect talks with Israel, mediated by Turkey, to establish the grounds and pave the way for direct negotiations that would ultimately be sponsored by several international parties.

"This, however, requires a genuine Israeli will capable of accommodating the exigencies of peace-making," he told the General Assembly. "It also requires the will to include peace in the Middle East on the American list of priorities after years of deliberately ignoring and failing to acknowledge it in such a way that has exacerbated the situation in the region."

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said while visiting the region late last month that she believes success is still possible.

She reminded the Security Council on Friday that just one year ago, there was no peace process, and noted that Israel and the Palestinians continue their negotiations, along with many other partners.

In his speech to the General Assembly, Bahrain's Foreign Minister Sheik Khalid bin Ahmed Al Khalifa said it was time for the Mideast "to develop new regional frameworks to overcome our long-standing challenges and ensure stable and lasting peace."

Saudi Arabia's Saud expressed hope that Iran will take practical steps to
ensure a peaceful and rapid solution to the problem of the Iranian nuclear program and save the region from devastating conflicts, futile arms races and serious environmental hazards.

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