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June 01, 2009

Rorschach Test on Arab League Plan

Whom do you believe: The Saudis? The Iranians? Akiva Eldar? Ha'aretz's earlier report or Ha'aretz's later report? Consider this a Rorschach test on the Arab League's plan.

Ha'aretz's Akiva Eldar claims today:

The new-old Arab-Israeli-American coalition is Obama's answer to the Iran-Hamas-Hezbollah one. It is based on the peace initiative of the Arab League, which was adopted by the Organization of the Islamic States, including Iran.

But as Ha'aretz reported back in 2007:

A spokesman for the Iranian presidency on Sunday denied that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had expressed support for the 2002 Arab peace initiative during talks with Saudi officials, as reported by Saudi Arabia's official news agency.

"During the summit, no discussions were held in this regard," Spokesman Ehsan Jahandideh told IRNA, the Iranian news agency.

Under the Saudi peace plan, adopted at an Arab League summit in Beirut in March 2002, Arab states would normalize relations with Israel in exchange for its withdrawal from territory captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Iran's official Islamic Republic News Agency, in a report carrying statements by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on his return to Iran late Saturday following talks with King Abdullah in Saudi Arabia, did not mention the initiative.

The Saudi Press Agency reported early Sunday that Ahmadinejad had said during talks that he was in favor of the plan. The report did not say how the agency had learned of this.

Posted by TS at June 1, 2009 06:48 AM

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