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Arabs to relaunch 2002 Arab-Israeli land-for-peace deal

Arabs will relaunch a 2002 land-for-peace offer in an effort to end the decades-long conflict with Israel at a summit later this month, but without changes Israel has been pushing, the Arab League's secretary-general said.

Amr Moussa's remarks on Sunday to a meeting of Arab foreign ministers came as Saudi Arabia announced that hardline Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad offered support for the initiative during talks with Saudi officials, though Iran later denied the two discussed the peace plan.

"The Arab peace initiative expresses an Arab consensus and will not be redrafted as demanded by some foreign powers," Moussa told the ministers, who were meeting in Cairo ahead of the Arab League summit scheduled for March 28-29 in the Saudi capital.

"Maneuvering and watering down [the initiative] will be a strategic mistake," Moussa said. "It perhaps will lead to new bloodshed."

Last week, Israeli newspapers quoted Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as saying that Israel would not accept the Arab peace plan as is and asked to drop any reference to the right of the Palestinians displaced in the 1948 Mideast war to return to their homes inside the Jewish state.

Moussa reiterated that Israel should give back all territories it seized in the 1967 war and allow Palestinian refugees to return.

The 2002 plan calls for the establishment of a Palestinian state and full recognition of Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from all territory captured in the Arab-Israeli wars. A later version of the initiative states that Israel should return all Arab land and also allow Palestinian refugees to return.

In what appeared to be a reversal of anti-Israel rhetoric by Iran's president, Saudi Arabia's official news agency reported on Sunday that Ahmadinejad expressed support for the 2002 initiative during talks on Saturday with Saudi's King Abdullah.

But further details about the talks were not released, and Iran's state media reported that an Iranian official denied the initiative was even discussed.
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