The two-day
Arab summit, due to open on Wednesday, is expected to renew an offer to
the Jewish state of normal ties with all Arab countries if it withdraws
from all territories it occupied in the 1967 war, accepts the creation of
a Palestinian state and agrees to a "just solution" for Palestinian
refugees.
Palestinian
President Mahmoud Abbas urged Israel
to seize on the Arab offer, describing it as a last chance for Israel to live in a "sea
of peace" across the Arab and Islamic world.
"This initiative simply says to Israel
'leave the occupied territories and you will live in a sea of peace that
begins in Nouakchott and ends in Indonesia'," Abbas said, referring to the
Mauritanian capital in West Africa and the southeast
Asian country that is the Muslim world's most populous.
"If this
initiative is destroyed, I don't believe there will be another opportunity
in the future like this."
Saudi Foreign
Minister Prince Saud al-Faisal said on Monday the plan will have a strong
chance of winning international support and of reviving Israeli-Arab peace
talks if adopted unanimously by all Arab leaders at the March 28-29 summit.
The meeting
will also tackle other crises, including the Iraq
conflict that has divided Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims across the region and
a political standoff between the Western-backed government and the pro-Iranian
opposition in Lebanon.
From Randy Larson