Israel, Egypt, Jordan to discuss Arab plan

Israel’s foreign minister will meet in Cairo with her Egyptian and Jordanian counterparts for the first formal discussion on the revived Saudi-led peace plan.Prior to Thursday’s talks with Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Abdelelah Al-Khatib, Tzipi Livni warned Monday that the current Arab stance – saying the initiative cannot be amended and that Israel must take it or leave it – is counterproductive to peace, Reuters reported.The 2002 plan calls for Israel to withdraw to pre-1967 lines, reach an “agreed, just” solution to Palestinian refugees’ demand for a “right of return” and accept a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, with Jerusalem as its capital, in exchange for full Arab recognition of the Jewish state.”These are good signs,” Livni told reporters in Jerusalem. But “just to market a plan to Israel, saying that these are the parameters for final-status agreement, this is wrong. I think that this can lead to stagnation.”Rather than having the Arab League, which would “support the Palestinians in times of
concessions,” as mediator, “the idea is that Israel and the Palestinians will negotiate on a bilateral track on final-status issues,” she said.