President Mahmoud Abbas (left) and Arab League Secretary General Dr Nabil Al Arabi at the Arab Peace Initiative
DOHA: An Arab ministerial committee met here yesterday to discuss ways to revive the stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace process and plans to send a mission to Washington, the Arab League chief said.
The talks of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee was chaired by the Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani in the presence of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
The meeting was attended by the Arab League Secretary General Dr Nabil Al Arabi, and the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and heads of delegations of the member states of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee, as well as the United Arab Emirates, Sultanate of Oman and Kuwait.
“This meeting was to discuss the mission of the Arab delegation that will visit Washington on April 29,” Al Arabi said.
Arabi said before the meeting that the delegation would go to the UN Security Council in New York. It is not clear if the delegation will still visit the UN headquarters. The proposal to send a delegation to New York was agreed at an Arab summit held in Doha last month.
Palestinian foreign minister Riyad Al Malki said that the delegation being sent to Washington would meet US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry. The team will include the foreign ministers of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, the Palestinians, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as well as the Arab League chief, he said.
Abbas told visiting Kerry on Sunday that Israel should freeze settlement construction and release prisoners, especially those arrested before the 1993 Oslo Accords, before any resumption of peace talks. Kerry said in Israel that he was focused on a “quiet strategy” to breathe new life into the peace process, but he would not be rushed.
Abbas also wants Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to present a map of the borders of a future Palestinian state before talks can resume, but a top political official told Israel’s Maariv newspaper this was out of the question. QNA/AFP
