'Israel too unstable to talk Saudi plan'
Arab leaders briefed key international players on a newly revived Arab initiative to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but decided to hold off on approaching Israel because of its current political turmoil.
The informal meeting between Arab ministers and leaders of the Quartet that drafted the roadmap to Mideast peace - the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia - took place Friday at the end of two days of meetings to try to restore stability to Iraq.
"It was a very good meeting and there has been a very good exchange of ideas,"
Egypt's Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit told the Associated Press after the closed-door session.
The Arab League on April 18 chose Egypt and Jordan - the two Arab nations that have diplomatic relations with Israel - to take the lead in approaching Israel to promote the Arab Peace Initiative, which was introduced by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and revived during an Arab summit in Riyadh in March.
The Quartet was represented at Friday's meeting by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana and EU external affairs commissioner Benita Ferrero Waldner. Many Arab ministers also attended.
"I was very much encouraged by this opportunity of engaging in direct, very candid dialogue with the Arab partners,"
Ban said.
"We agreed to meet again. The Quartet principals are going to meet sometime in the middle of May and on that occasion we may have another opportunity of engaging in an informal setting with Arab leaders,"
he said.
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US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice gestures during a press conference following the Iraq Conference for the Neighbors of Iraq.
Photo: AP
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