SIRTE: Palestinian President Mahomud Abbas on Saturday ruled out US-brokered indirect peace talks with Israel unless it halts settlements, as Arab leaders closed ranks over Jerusalem at a summit in Libya.
The summit in the Mediterranean city of Sirte also tackled relations with Israel’s regional arch-foe Iran, with leaders discussing a proposal to engage in a dialogue with the Islamic republic.
In a speech at the opening of the two-day gathering, Abbas echoed widespread concern that the Middle East peace process was in peril and urged his Arab peers to “rescue” Jerusalem.
“We cannot resume indirect negotiations as long as Israel maintains its settlement policy and the status quo,” he said after UN chief Ban Ki-moon had addressed the summit seeking Arab support for the talks.
Abbas accused Israel of seeking to wipe out the Arab identity of Jerusalem through “ethnic cleansing” and insisted that Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem must be the capital of any future Palestinian state.
“We have always said that Jerusalem is the jewel in the crown and the gate to peace,” he said.
Ban urged Arab leaders to facilitate Israeli-Palestinian “proximity” talks, saying “our common goal should be to resolve all final-status issues within 24 months.”
He also reiterated that Israel’s settlement activity in mainly Arab east Jerusalem was “illegal” and stressed Jerusalem must emerge “as the capital of two states.”
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, another guest speaker, blasted Israel’s policy of dealing with the whole of Jerusalem as its united capital as "madness."
"Jerusalem is the apple of the eye of each and every Muslim… and we cannot at all accept any Israeli violation in Jerusalem or in Muslim sites," Erdogan said.
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who was likewise invited by Libyan leader Moamer Qaddafi to address the summit, said "now is the time to give peace a chance."
"We have the possibility, we have the responsibility and we feel the urgency," he said.
Fresh US efforts to broker indirect Israeli-Palestinian peace talks earlier this month were still-born when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new homes for Jewish settlers in east Jerusalem.
The timing of the announcement during a visit to Israel by US Vice President Joe Biden enraged Washington and the Palestinians, who just days earlier had agreed to give peace talks another chance after a year-long hiatus.
Arab leaders from both the pro-Western and radical camps have also been angered by the opening of a restored 17th-century synagogue near east Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound, the third-holiest site in Islam.
The 13 Arab leaders attending the summit along with Qaddafi are due to adopt a resolution to raise $500 million dollars in aid to improve living conditions for Jerusalem Palestinians.
After a plenary session for speeches, the leaders broke for lunch and returned for talks behind closed doors before wrapping up the first day of meetings.
Arab League chief Amr Moussa, who said before the summit that peace talks with Israel had become "pointless," asked the leaders on Saturday to examine "the chances of failure of the peace process" due to Israel’s policies.
He also said the Arabs should open a dialogue with Iran, which is locked in a dispute with the West over its controversial nuclear program, and set up an "Arab Neighborhood Zone" that would include the Islamic republic and Turkey.
"I understand that some of us have concerns about Iranian positions. This does not rule out but maybe confirms the need for a dialogue in order to define our future relations with Iran, with whom we differ on many issues," he said.
Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told reporters that the afternoon session discussed Moussa’s proposal on Iran "but most of the Arab countries don’t welcome this for now." He did not elaborate.
The Arab summit follows the worst violence in the blockaded Gaza Strip in 14 months, and comes after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rejected anew on Friday international calls to stop settlement building in east Jerusalem.
Israeli tanks carried out an incursion into southern Gaza and killed a Palestinian militant on Saturday after the army lost two soldiers in clashes the previous day along the border with the coastal strip.
The Sirte gathering is the first annual summit to be hosted by the maverick Qaddafi, who considers Israel an implacable "enemy" of the Arabs.
