Saudi Arabia has mentioned Crown Prince Abdullah's Middle East peace initiative for the first time in a world forum, but also accused Israel of trying to expel the Palestinians from their land. Ambassador Fawzi bin Abdul Majeed Shobokshi spoke at the United Nations Security Council late Wednesday - the final day of the council's two-day debate on the Middle East crisis.

The Saudi U.N. ambassador made only one reference to the peace initiative, which would offer Arab diplomatic recognition of Israel in exchange for Israel's withdrawal from all land occupied in the 1967 Middle East war.

But he accused Israel of "systematic terrorism" against the Palestinians - saying Israel's objective was and (still) remains to expel the Arab people from Palestine and to occupy more Palestinian territory in order to set up an exclusive state.

Israel's deputy U.N. Ambassador Aaron Jacob said he was "disappointed" at what he called the "confrontational" speech. He said if Saudi Arabia or any other country wants to promote peace, the first thing it should do is to try to gain the trust of the Israeli people.

Diplomats at the world body say the Saudi speech indicated that fleshing out Crown Prince Abdullah's proposals will be very difficult.

Some information for this report provided by AP, AFP and Reuters.

Email this article to a friend
Printer Friendly Version