Israel said it welcomed the offer of normalization and peace but made clear that it had numerous reservations about the offer.
In a closing statement at the summit meeting here of the Arab League, the delegates reaffirmed “the option of a just and comprehensive peace for the Arab nation” that would be “based on the principles and resolutions of international legitimacy and the land-for-peace formula.”
The initiative offers Israel recognition and permanent peace with the Arab states in exchange for Israel’s withdrawal from lands captured in the 1967 Middle East war, and the creation of a Palestinian state with a capital in Jerusalem.
The Palestinian president, Mahmoud Abbas, said, in addressing the meeting on Thursday, “I reiterate the sincerity of the Palestinian will in extending the hand of peace to the Israeli people.”
He urged Israelis not to “waste more chances,” and added, “The entire region will be under renewed threats of war, explosions and regional and international confrontations, due to the absence of a solution or the impossibility of finding one.”
The Arab proposal has remained unchanged since it was introduced in 2002, and Israeli demands to amend the proposal have been rebuffed.
Israel reacted with a degree of ambivalence to the vote on Thursday. A statement issued by the Israeli Foreign Ministry stopped short of endorsing the proposal.
“Israel is sincerely interested in pursuing a dialogue with those Arab states that desire peace with Israel, this in order to promote a process of normalization and cooperation,” it said. “Israel hopes that the Riyadh summit will contribute to this effort.”
It said that for a successful two-nation solution, “a direct dialogue between Israel and the Palestinians is necessary.”
But Deputy Prime Minister Shimon Peres appeared on the Arab satellite channel Al Jazeera to encourage Arab and Israeli leaders to hold direct talks on peace. “Let’s sit together as we are supposed to and work on it as we did before with Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinians,” he said.
Arab leaders bristled at the Israeli reaction. “This does not express a positive stand of a country that wants peace,” said Prince Saud al-Faisal, the Saudi foreign minister.
Amr Moussa, secretary general of the Arab League, told reporters, referring to the Israelis, “The message has reached them already,” and added, “The Arab world is in a state of agitation and cannot accept the way of procrastination any more.”
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, both toured the region earlier in the week seeking to build support for the peace efforts and the Arab initiative. Mr. Ban, addressing the Arab leaders at the summit meeting, called the initiative “one of the pillars of the peace process” and urged Israel to “take a fresh look at it.”
In under two days of deliberations, the Arab leaders left other Middle East crises unresolved. They called for elimination of unconventional weapons from the region, warning of “the launch of a grave and destructive nuclear arms race in the region” if Iran is able to continue with its nuclear ambitions. They also agreed to begin a new regional security effort in addition to a pan-Arab development initiative.
Perhaps the most significant breakthrough was an agreement by the Sudanese leader, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, to allow a joint United Nations-African Union force in Darfur. The agreement follows a series of meetings between Mr. Bashir and Mr. Ban, together with King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, Mr. Moussa and Alpha Oumar Konaré, chairman of the African Union.
Despite high expectations that numerous regional crises would be settles, however, the summit meeting ended with almost as many loose ends as it began. Despite a seeming reconciliation between the Saudis and President Bashar al-Assad of Syria, the leaders were not able to help settle the five-month political crisis in Lebanon that has brought much of the country to a halt.
Lebanon’s embattled president, Émile Lahoud, led the Lebanese delegation at the meeting, arriving with several opposition ministers who resigned last December after Prime Minister Fouad Siniora refused their demands to give them more influence in the cabinet. Mr. Siniora, meanwhile, arrived as a guest of King Abdullah, sitting behind the delegates, at pains not to give the impression of two dueling governments.
“If there are political differences between the politicians, then they should talk between each other and let the Lebanese live their lives,” Prince Saud told reporters, expressing frustration with lack of progress in negotiations between either side.
Perhaps the biggest winner from the meeting is Saudi Arabia, which was host for an Arab League summit meeting for the first time, exercising its newfound political influence in the region to try to settle many of the conflicts. Libya, whose leader, Col. Muammar el-Qaddafi, according to reports has been accused of seeking to assassinate King Abdullah, did not attend.
The Saudis spared no expense in showing off their capital, offering journalists tours of the city, and holding a dinner on Wednesday night complete with servers flown in from Beirut who practiced their tasks for three weeks.
“This is not Egypt or Syria,” said Turki al-Rasheed, who runs a organization that promotes democracy in Saudi Arabia. “When the king puts his weight behind a project, no one goes against it.”
Lebanon Revokes Journalist’s Visa
BEIRUT, March 29 – Lebanon has revoked the visa it had granted an Israeli journalist traveling with Mr. Ban on his current Middle East tour, and she was unable to accompany the United Nations party to Beirut on Thursday night.
The decision came despite the personal intervention of Mr. Ban, who sought out Mr. Siniora at an Arab League dinner in Riyadh on Wednesday to plead her case. Mr. Ban said early on Thursday that Mr. Siniora told him it was politically too risky for him to allow an Israeli writer into the country now.
It was the second time in a week that Mr. Ban had involved himself in trying to overcome objections to the presence of the journalist, Orly Azoulay, the Washington bureau chief of the Israeli daily, Yediot Aharonot. When Saudi Arabia declined last week to give her a visa to go to Riyadh, he called the country’s foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, and got the action reversed.
