Israel will not accept the Arab Peace Initiative unless changes are made to it, Arab48 reported Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu saying yesterday.
During a Likud meeting, Netanyahu was reported to have said: “If the Arab states understood that they have to change the Arab Peace Initiative based on Israel’s demands, we would find something to speak about.”
According to Israeli newspaper Haaretz, Netanyahu said he would reject the initiative if changes were not made to it as though it included some positive clauses, including the normalisation of relations between Arab nations and Israel, there were others which Tel Aviv would not accept.
Israel’s withdrawal to 1967 borders, land swaps and the return of Palestinian refugees, were just some of the points which he said were not agreeable.
The Arab Peace Initiative was proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 and adopted by the Arab League in the same year.
Then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon rejected it immediately, saying it was born dead.