Getting Obama to move on Middle East peace will not be cheap for Arab countries, but officials deem the price worth paying, Dina Ezzat reports Meetings and consultations are being stepped up across all concerned parties aimed to re-launch stalled Arab-Israeli and Israeli-Palestinian peace talks. The objective is to reach a fresh start that could eventually deliver a final peace deal. Arab capitals support the interest of the new US administration of Barack Obama in pursuing Middle East peace. Especially supportive are Cairo and Riyadh, yesterday and today on the itinerary of the US president's first Arab tour. "The current consultations will not go on forever. Something should [materialise] by the first of July," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in Cairo Saturday. Speaking to the press following talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Abbas said, "Yes, I am optimistic about what the Obama administration can deliver" in relation to Middle East peacemaking. The optimism of the Palestinian president, he explained, is justified by the discourse of the new US administration on what makes peace possible in the Middle East. "The [Obama administration] is talking on the right basis. Obama and [Secretary of State Hillary] Clinton are talking about an end to the [illegal expansion of Israeli] settlements and about [the implementation of] the two-state solution. This is very important," Abbas said. Abbas stopped over in Cairo to brief Mubarak on talks he held at the White House. According to Cairo-based Palestinian sources, the Washington talks "were promising". Unlike former US President George W Bush, who admonished visiting Palestinian officials about the need to end violence and accommodate the concerns of the Israeli government, Obama sounded more "business like" to the visiting Palestinian delegation. The new US president does want an end to violence towards Israel, Palestinian sources report, but he also understands that the Palestinian Authority cannot afford to come over as a caretaker of Israeli security. At this time, according to one Cairo-based Arab diplomat familiar with current consultations between Arab capitals and Washington, it is "something for our people" to hear the US president and his secretary of state call for an end to the expansion of illegal Israeli settlements and for the Israeli government to commit to the two-state solution. According to the same sources, even when Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu defies US demands on freezing settlement expansion, "still the Palestinians feel that at least the US president is taking the right position". Palestinian sources report demands that Obama made to Abbas, including the renewed acknowledgment of Israeli security wishes and an end to "heavy anti-Israeli incitement". They also report US demands for Arab "openness" towards Israel. At the same time, sources add, the Palestinian delegation heard positive overtures from the US president about the right of Palestinians to have their own independent state "that could be a home to all Palestinians", and that this should happen in the next few years as part of a comprehensive Arab-Israeli peace settlement. Moreover, the Abbas-led Palestinian delegations and a high-level Egyptian delegation, including Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit and General Intelligence Chief Omar Suleiman who were in Washington late last week, heard "clear assurances" that for this administration "it is the roadmap" that will decide US positions in arbitrating future Palestinian-Israeli talks that Washington signals an interest in hosting. During the past few days, Cairo and Riyadh, Obama's two stops, discussed ways of how to help Obama to help the cause of peace. The two Arab capitals consulted with other Arab and European partners, especially Jordan. According to sources indirectly familiar with these consultations, Arab capitals are willing to be involved and present in high-level talks that would launch peace negotiations on the basis of the two-state solution. Arab capitals, the same sources say, are not opposed to showing some signs of "engagement with Israel", first by countries that already have diplomatic or trade relations with Tel Aviv. Other Arab countries could follow. Arab countries still condition such openness to progress in the peace talks. Further, Arab countries would observe an anti- incitement code towards Israel and encourage all Palestinian factions, including Hamas, with which they will be communicating, to give Obama a chance to make peace. Arabs also agree to reach out to Iraqi government to make sure that a gradual withdrawal of US combat troops from Iraq would not bring about chaos and force a delay of the withdrawal of troops. Iraq's defence minister was in Cairo this week for talks on future cooperation. Moreover, Saudi diplomats in Washington reportedly offered assurances to the White House that Saudi Arabia would overlook its reservation over what Riyadh perceives as "too close of an association" between the Iraqi government of Nuri Al-Maliki and Iran. Some Arab capitals are already helping Washington in its attempt to instigate constructive dialogue with Tehran. Finally, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and other Arab countries agree in principle to reaching out to the US -- by financial, military and logistical means -- in its attempt to contain the Taliban and stabilise Afghanistan. The consensus among Arab countries, Arab diplomats in Cairo say, is that Obama appears serious in intention to make a breakthrough on the Middle East front and that Arabs "should give him a chance".
