The Arab League held a meeting of its Foreign Ministers, during which they announced that the Arab peace initiative, that was first introduced by Saudi Arabia in 2002, must be used as the basis for a solution to the decades old conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We agree that the Palestinian issue is a central cause, and that lifting injustice and occupation from our brothers the Palestinians on the basis of the two-state solution, is a prerequisite to achieving regional safety and stability,” Ayman Safadi, Jordanian Foreign Minister.
The Arab peace initiative offers Israel diplomatic recognition from Arab countries in return for a deal that secures statehood for the Palestinians, based on the pre-1967 borders that includes East Jerusalem as the capital of a future Palestinian state – a demand strongly opposed by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his right-wing government whom view Jerusalem as the eternal and indivisible capital of the Jewish state, and perceive the 1967 lines as unviable borders incapable of assuring security to the state of Israel.