MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Earlier, Israel’s Jerusalem Affairs Minister Zeev Elkin said that the country was interested in rapprochement with the neighbors in the region, but was not ready to implement all the requirements stipulated in the Arab Peace Initiative as some of them could not be accepted.
"Israel’s prime minister wants to stand against any peace process in this issue. Therefore, we don’t have any kind of feeling that there will be approaching to this peace process," Nofal said.
The Arab Peace Initiative, also known as the Saudi Initiative, is a 10-sentence proposal for an end to the Arab–Israeli conflict that was endorsed by the Arab League in 2002. The initiative offers Israel normalization of relations with the Arab world in return for withdrawal from land occupied in 1967, the recognition of a Palestinian state with its capital in East Jerusalem and a fair solution to the issue of Palestinian refugees.
The core of the long-lasting Palestinian-Israeli conflict is essentially a struggle over land. Palestinians are seeking recognition of their independent state proclaimed in 1988 on the territories of the West Bank, which Israel calls Judea and Samaria Area, as well as East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip. The Israeli government refuses to recognize Palestine as an independent political and diplomatic entity.
