Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Muallem threatened the Assad regime could withdraw its support for a so-called Arab Peace Initiative, proposed by Saudi regent Crown Prince Abdullah and adopted by the Arab League in 2002, if Israel refuses to "prove" its desire for peace.
Speaking at a meeting of Arab foreign ministers ahead of this weekend's Arab League summit, Muallem told diplomats that Israel lacks the "political will" to create peace, and that the current meeting should concentrate on exploring "other options."
"We support what came out of our meeting in Cairo which is to study Arab options for the strategy of peace," he said, referring to a meeting in the Egyptian capital earlier this month in which Arab countries threatened to withdraw the proposal which demands an Israeli withdrawal from all lands liberated in the 1967 Six Day War in exchange for "normalization" of political ties with all Arab countries.