The Hindu : Riyadh offers Israel `complete peace plan'

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Mar 11, 2002

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International

Riyadh offers Israel `complete peace plan'

Sharm el-Sheik (Egypt), March 10. Saudi Arabia's Foreign Minister offered Israel "complete peace from Arab nations" in exchange for Israeli withdrawal from Arab lands and the creation of an independent Palestine with Jerusalem as its capital.

The Foreign Minister, Saud al-Faisal, speaking to reporters after meeting for an hour today the Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak, offered the most detailed Saudi comments on the kingdom's overture to Israel since it was first made public last month by the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah in a newspaper interview.

The push for peace has taken on great urgency in recent days as deaths in Palestinian-Israeli violence mount. Last night, a Palestinian suicide bomber killed at least 12 persons in an attack on a cafe across the street from the Israeli Prime Minister, Ariel Sharon's walled compound. By Sunday morning, Israel had destroyed the Palestinian leader, Yasser Arafat's seaside office in Gaza and some Israeli Cabinet Ministers were calling for all-out war.

Influential moderate Arabs, including Egypt, have welcomed the Saudi proposal as a basis for peacemaking. It was expected to emerge from an Arab summit later this month as a full-fledged offer to Israel. Mr. Al-Faisal said his kingdom would formally present the proposal at the summit in Beirut, Lebanon. "Arab nations stress their intention to realise a lasting and comprehensive peace but at the same time Israel must show its good faith toward peace," Mr. Al-Faisal said.

The suicide bombing in downtown Jerusalem's Moment café in the posh Rehavia neighbourhood, came two hours after a separate attack in the northern coastal city of Netanya in which three persons, including a woman and a nine-month-old baby girl, were killed and some 50 wounded — several of them seriously — when two Palestinian gunmen opened fire indiscriminately and hurled grenades into a hotel lobby and passersby.

The al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, linked to the Fatah movement and the radical Palestinian outfit, Hamas claimed responsibility for the Jerusalem attack. The Jerusalem police chief, Mickey Levy, said there was no specific warning about the attack in Rehavia though there were alerts of possible attacks in the city. "We can't be in every place at all times," he told the Israeli media. Police said they did not believe Mr. Sharon was the intended target of the bombing and that it was coincidence that the attack occurred close to his residence.

In Gaza, Israeli helicopters and gunboats fired at least 25 missiles at Mr. Arafat's office, totally destroying the building. Eyewitnesses in Jerusalem said the suicide bomber walked into the cafe, located at the corner of Aza and Ben-Maimon streets, about 100 metres from Sharon's residence, and detonated a powerful explosive device. Mr. Sharon was not home at the time of the explosion, media reports said.

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