Tuesday, March 13, 2007

The Danger is in the Details, Eh?

Mohammad Momani, professor of political science at Yarmouk University in Jordan, said: “The Arabs will be in a very critical situation, because they will have to spell out some details — which is a very risky business, because they will run the risk of Israel rejecting any detail.


Can't imagine what those details could be?

Israeli officials, pressed by Washington, are suddenly finding much to praise in a Saudi peace proposal...In the last two days, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni have spoken of “positive” elements in the Saudi initiative...

The initiative is a set of principles that would offer Israel full recognition and permanent peace with the Arab states in return for Israel’s withdrawal to 1967 lines, the establishment of an independent Palestine with East Jerusalem as its capital and “an agreed, just solution” to the issue of Palestinian refugees in accordance with United Nations General Assembly Resolution 194 of 1948.

Israel has a variety of problems with the initiative, especially on the refugee issue


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UPDATE

Not 12 hours go by and what do I find at BBC?

But Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal described preconditions raised by Israel as "ludicrous".

"We only hear conditions from Israel about everything, but no acceptance," Prince Saud told reporters during a visit to Riyadh by EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.

"You cannot have negotiations like that, you accept the proposals then you talk about this.

"This seems a ludicrous way of doing business," he said.


Why is this ludicrous? Is this the way to do business in Saudi Arabia? Or does one express interest and do some pre-negotiating? Why not?

Seems instead of the verb "jewing down", we'll have "sauding up" soon.

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