Israel, Syria, Lebanon and other Arab nations should sit down together to try to resolve the Middle East conflict under a new "combined approach" currently under discussion with the US, Jordan's king said Wednesday.
The idea is the latest indication that the Obama administration is trying to build on the shared interest of its Arab allies and Israel in blunting the threat from Iran. As part of the new strategy, Arab diplomats said this week that the US has asked the 22-member Arab League to amend a 2002 peace initiative to make it more palatable to Israel.
"What we are discussing today is a combined approach of bringing together Arabs, Europeans and the United States as a team to create the circumstances over the next several months that allow Israelis and Palestinians to sit at the table, but also with Lebanese, Syrians and Arab nations," Jordan's King Abdullah told a news conference in Berlin.
"So it is a packaged effort that we are going to work on ... and I would imagine that the plan will be more articulated by the president of the United States after (Israeli) Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Washington," Abdullah added.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is expected to meet US President Barack Obama on May 18 to push for a tough US stance on Iran. Israel argues that progress in peace with the Palestinians can't happen unless Iran is reined in.
International Mideast envoy Tony Blair also said Wednesday that the Obama administration and international negotiators were drafting a new strategy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and expected to unveil it within six weeks. He did not provide any further details, however.
Arab diplomats say the Americans are pressing Arabs to amend their 2002 peace initiative to make it more acceptable to Israel. The plan - first proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 - called for exchange of Arab land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war for normalized relations with Arab countries. Later Arabs added an insistence on the right of Palestinian refugees who lost their homes in Mideast wars to return to what is now Israel.
Several diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the Americans are asking the Arab nations to drop the right of return and agree to either resettle the refugees in the host countries or in the Palestinian territories.
Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa rejected that suggestion.
"There is no amendment to this initiative. We have received nothing from the other side. ... no initiative no response and no proper talking about peace, so why should we change or amend and for what reason," he told The Associated Press in an interview.
Moussa also said the US should not try to link Iran with other Middle East conflicts.
"The question of Iran should be separate from the Arab-Israel conflict," Moussa said.
Abdullah also suggested a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would make 57 Muslim nations that do not recognize Israel go into direct negotiations with the Israelis. That was an apparent reference to the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, a group that Iran plays a key role in.
An Israeli government official welcomed the involvement of the Arab allies in the peace process.
"We see a very important role that moderate Arab states, countries like Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others can play in the process, in strengthening the peace process. We believe their more direct involvement in the peace process can be positive and can help energize the process of reconciliation between us and the Palestinians," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.
