President Shimon Peres told Jordanian King Abdullah II on Sunday that the "Arab Peace Initiative" is "a great idea that needs to be looked into.” He also said that Israel backs the 2002 Road Map, which supports the creation of a Palestinian Authority State as the culmination of a process.
Peres met Abdullah at the World Economic Forum taking place on the Jordanian side of the Dead Sea only a few days after the monarch met Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, and tried to convince Netanyahu to endorse a two-state solution.
Netanyahu has so far remained committed to the formula of “diplomatic, security, and economic” negotiations with the Palestinian Authority without openly endorsing a PA state.
Peres seemed to try to make up for Netanyahu’s intransigence. When asked by Abdullah about Netanyahu’s refusal to endorse a PA state, Peres replied, “The Prime Minister has said that he will adhere to all commitments of previous Israeli governments, including the Road Map.”
Peres also reacted positively to Abdullah’s open call to Israel to accept the Arab Peace Initiative. Abdallah claimed Saturday that the initiative offered Israel “a historic opportunity to achieve peace with the Palestinian Authority, Syria, and Lebanon.”
The plan calls for a return of Arab refugees to Israel, a concept that all Israeli leaders admit would spell the end of the Jewish state. However, Abdullah is reportedly trying to get Arab leaders to agree to drop that condition, at the behest of U.S. President Barack Obama.
Peres told Abdullah that he would talk to Netanyahu about the plan “according to which 57 Arab countries would make peace with Israel.”