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Israel tends to seek roles of major Arab states to push peace deal

Xinhua, May 29, 2015 Adjust font size:

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday that the 2002 Arab Peace Initiative serves Israel's interests minus several adjustments.

Netanyahu, who spoke with local diplomatic reporters in Tel Aviv on Thursday, talked about the positive and negative aspects of the initiative put forth by the Arab League, according to which Arab countries would normalize their ties with Israel in return for an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state.

"If we can recruit some of the Arab countries in order to resolve the conflict, that is something desirable," Netanyahu told the reporters on Thursday.

"The idea of approaching Arab countries amid the changes that are taking place in the Middle East is a positive idea that I'm looking into all the time."

However, Netanyahu said that some tweaks are needed, calling the 13-year initiative is "outdated," with good and bad elements in it.

Referring to those bad elements, Netanyahu named the demand that Israel would hand over the Golan Heights to Syria as well as the demand to let Palestinian refugees return to Israel.

"This initiative was brought up 13 years ago and a lot of things have changed in the Middle East since, but the concept of reaching understandings with leading states in the Arab world is a good idea," the Prime Minister said.

Last week, during a meeting with visiting European Union Foreign Affairs chief Federica Mogherini, Netanyahu said he is still committed to the two-state solution, despite other statements he made during his election trail ahead of the March 17 elections, in which he said no Palestinian state "would be established under my watch."

Netanyahu explained on Thursday that he meant to say he does not see the establishment of the Palestinian state anytime soon, adding he still supports that notion.

Despite his declarations of his commitment to the two-state solution, Netanyahu did not specify what steps his government is willing to take to achieve that goal. Endit