Cairo – Arab countries will need guarantees and a timetable for talks over a final solution to their conflict with Israel as a condition to their participation in an international peace conference to be sponsored by the United States, the Arab League chief said.
In an interview with Deutsche Presse-Agentur Wednesday evening, the Arab League Secretary-General Amr Musa said Arab countries were opposed to open-ended talks with Israel.
‘This was our mistake in the 1990s. We will not repeat it,’ Musa said.
Arab participation in the conference is conditional on Israel giving certain guarantees, Musa explained. An example of such guarantees would be a moratorium on building settlements, he said.
‘The Israelis swallow things and never give,’ Musa said. He further added that nothing has been offered so far, hence Arab reluctance to sit at the negotiation table with Israel.
Musa ruled out participation of the Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal just for the sake of a photo opportunity with his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni.
