What is happening in Riyadh?
Statements and circumstances that stand out from reporting at the beginning of the Arab League Summit in Riyadh today,
Speaking at the Riyadh summit, al-Faisal said, "If Israel refuses, that means it doesn't want peace. Then [the conflict] goes back into the hands of the lords of war."[...]"The Israelis response was to ask for an amendment. We tell them to accept it first," [Arab League Secretary General Amr] Moussa told Arab leaders at a summit in Saudi Arabia.
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The European Union's foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, on Wednesday urged Arab states to be flexible in their land-for-peace offer to Israel, warning that without a solution to the conflict, the Middle East is at risk of missing the train of human and economic development.
If the initiative is supposed to be in genuine good faith, then why the belligerent take-it-or-leave-it opening statements on the part of the participants? If the initiative genuinely seeks to initiate negotiations with Israel, where is the mechanism for diplomatic exchange necessary for those negotiations to take place? If the intention of the summit is to relaunch a comprehensive peace initiative, then why not invite Israel? If Israeli representatives were not invited because it is after all an Arab League summit, then why is the foreign policy chief of the European Union there?
