AMMAN: Arab League chief Amr Moussa on Tuesday said an Arab summit later this month expects Israel to make a serious offer on peace instead of resorting to tricks to waste time.
We expect an offer, a position from Israel in so far as peace is concerned, Moussa told reporters in Amman following talks with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdel Ilah Khatib on the March 28-29 summit in Saudi Arabia.
We fail to see any offer, any talk about serious peace, the secretary general said ahead of a meeting with King Abdullah II as part of a regional tour to prepare for the summit.
What we see is the same old policy of building (Jewish) settlements, of procrastination, of resorting to tricks one after the other in order to waste time, Moussa said. Moussa reiterated the Arabs refusal to amend a Saudi peace initiative first launched at a 2002 summit in Beirut and which leaders hope to revive when they meet in Riyadh.
Israel is asking for modifications to the bid, which offers normalization of Arab ties with the Jewish state in exchange for its pullout from Arab lands occupied in 1967 and the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Earlier this month Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni said two clauses concerning the right of return of Palestinian refugees were very problematic for her country.
One calls for the return of Palestinians who fled or were forced out in 1948, the other rules out their permanent settlement in the Arab states where they or their descendants currently live.
We are not ready to enter into any changes or any discussion about the contents of the initiative, Moussa said.
