Deputy Palestinian Prime Minister, Azzam Al-ahmad, of Fatah, affirmed Saturday that if Israel does not seize current chance for Middle East peace, represented in the Arab peace initiative, the alternative will be horrible.
Al-ahmad’s remarks came during a meeting in the West Bank city of Ramallah with youth members of the labor Israeli party.
“Underway international circumstances are fitting, especially amidst Arab states re-endorsement of their 2002 peace proposal and the Palestinian factions’ agreement to a unified political agenda, so that Palestinians and Israel can reach a final settlement of their conflict”.
This meeting is the first of its type after the Israeli government had announced a boycott of the Palestinian unity government, comprised of Fatah and Hamas, Palestinians inaugurated on March.
The deputy-PM emphasized the need that peace powers in Israel should push forward reviving the Palestinian-Israeli peace process, given hardliner Israelis’ ongoing attempts to undermine peace between the two peoples.
Iran Harmouni, head of the Labor Party’s division of youth, called on the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert to resume the stalled peace talks with the Palestinian side by implementing past signed agreements.
Harmouni maintained that the Israeli youth support peace with their Palestinian neighbors, expressing regret for the halt of peace process and calling for pressurizing the Israeli government to seize potential Middle East peace.
In light of an Arab peace initiative endorsed recently by the Arab states summit in Riyadh in late March, commentators believe that peace in the Middle East is potential, if Israel complies unconditionally with the peace offer.
Ministers of the Arab quartet (Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan, United Arab of Emirates) are due to meet on Wednesday to discuss formation of special committees aimed at promoting the peace initiative, which Israel has already refused, dismissing potential peace for the short-run.
The Arab peace proposal, first drafted by the Saudi Arabia in 2002, calls for full Israeli withdrawal from the Arab lands it occupied in 1967, in return for normal Arab-Israeli ties and a fair solution for the Palestinian refugee problem.
