An Israeli Cabinet minister urged Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to attend the upcoming
Arab League summit. Housing and Construction Minister Meir Sheetrit said Olmert should fly to Riyadh for the summit at month’s end, where
Saudi Arabia is expected to reissue its proposal for a comprehensive
Israeli-Arab peace deal.
“I recommend that the prime minister go all the way
with the move,” Sheetrit told
Israel’s Army Radio. “If I were in his shoes, I would arrange a visit for myself to
the Arab League meeting and speak with them openly. As long as no confidence is created between us, there
will be no peace.”
Olmert has voiced interest
recently in the Saudi proposal in which Israel would quit all territory it captured
in the 1967 Six-Day War and accept a “right of return” for Palestinian
refugees, receiving recognition from the Arab world in return. But Israel
has reservations about several points in the proposal.
