Al-Faisal pushes for real peace talks with at historic talk

Amos Yadlin, left, Turki bin Faisal Al Saud and David Ignatius in Brussels on May 26.

Tuesday, May 27, 2014

BRUSSELS – PENINSULA TIMES – An Israeli official claims Prince Turki Al-Faisal, director of the General Intelligence of from 1979 to 2001 rejected an invitation to Jerusalem calling it “an appeal to emotion that distracted from the issue of reaching peace” at the .

Amos Yadlin, former head of the Israel Defense Forces’ Military Intelligence Directorate, made the statement during a public talk in Brussels with Faisal.

The Brussels meeting is designed to discuss pressing security policy issues facing Middle Eastern countries with Amos Yadlin, who headed Israel’s military intelligence between 2006 and 2010. The talk, moderated by Washington Post columnist David Ignatius, is the first of it’s kind between a Saudi diplomat and an Israeli envoy and hosted by the German Marshall Fund.

Fasial asked Livni why Israel did not follow up on the initiative, which Saudi Arabia presented in 2002 proposing normalization of ties between Israel and Arab League members in exchange for an Israeli withdrawal from all areas Israel captured in 1967 and a “just solution” to the Palestinian refugee issue that would be “agreed upon” by the parties. According to Washington Post Associate Editor David Ignatius, who moderated the Munich talks, Yadlin agreed to provide a reply in Brussels. “There is nothing under the table, no hidden agreement or underhanded move or secret clauses to it, the Arabs will recognize Israel diplomatically, normalize relations and [end] hostilities in return for Israel withdrawing from all lands occupied in ’67,” he said.

“The real problem is that the Saudi initiative became the Arab League dictate in a summit in Beirut in 2002,” Yadlin said. “The Saudis modified it into a take it or leave it offer with parameters we can’t accept: Mostly in the issue of returning the Golan to Syrians,” Yadlin said, adding that the settling of the Palestinian refugee problem was also a stumbling block.

The meeting was organized by the German Marshall Fund as follow-up to a public exchange in Munich four months ago between Faisal and Israeli Justice Minister , who is also Israel’s chief negotiator with the Palestinians.

https://www.peninsulatimes.org/2014/05/26/turki-bin-faisal-rejects-jerusalem-invite-exchange- real-peace-talks-israel/