Arabs vow to support Obama's Mideast peace drive

PEACE PROCESS: Obama has made relaunching the Middle East peace process a top priority. (Getty Images)

Arab foreign ministers vowed on Wednesday to support US President Barack Obama's Middle East peace efforts but said that normalisation with Israel depends on a halt to its settlement activity.

Arab countries "are prepared to deal positively with the proposals of President Obama to solve the Arab-Israeli conflict," they said in a statement after a meeting at Arab League headquarters in Cairo.

They vowed to "take the necessary steps to support the American effort based on achieving comprehensive peace and the creation of a sovereign, independent Palestinian state with east Jerusalem as its capital."

Obama has made relaunching the Middle East peace process a top priority, pledging a "new beginning" for Islam and America in a landmark speech to the world's Muslims delivered in Cairo earlier this month.

He has also bluntly called for Israel to halt settlement activity on Palestinian land while urging Arabs to move closer to making peace with Israel.

The Arab ministers in Cairo did not spell out the steps they planned to take but said that in order to normalise relations with Israel, the Jewish state "must put a complete stop to settlement activity including in east Jerusalem."

Arab League chief Amr Mussa said Arabs were prepared to reconsider dealing with Israel "because there is now an American administration which has since day one expressed its seriousness in ending the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"This therefore requires us to move seriously and to take international positions in consideration," Mussa told a news conference after the talks.

"We give importance to the serious and balanced proposal put forward by President Obama" although "we consider statements by (Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu as unacceptable."

In a key policy speech earlier this month, Netanyahu for the first time mentioned the creation of a Palestinian state, but said it had to be demilitarised.

He also said the Palestinians must recognise the Jewish character of Israel and ruled out a halt to all Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.

The Arab ministers' statement comes just two weeks after US envoy George Mitchell called on Arab states to take "meaningful steps and important actions" to make peace with Israel.

"We are working hard to achieve our objective, a comprehensive peace in the Middle East," Mitchell said during a trip to Egypt.

This includes "peace between Israel and its other immediate neighbours and full normalisation of relations between Israel and all of the Arab nations as contemplated by the Arab peace initiative," he said.

The 2002 initiative, backed by all 22 members of the Arab League, offers Israel full normalisation in return for a withdrawal from territory occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, a Palestinian state and an equitable solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.

A meeting between Mitchell and Netanyahu scheduled for Wednesday was called off because of disagreements over settlement growth, Israeli media reported.

Officials close to Netanyahu said he had called off the meeting and denied an Israeli newspaper report that Washington had cancelled it over Israel's refusal to halt "natural growth" in the settlements.

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