Associated Press DAMASCUS: Syria on Wednesday voiced opposition to making any revisions to the Arab-Israeli peace initiative endorsed by Arab leaders five years ago and cast doubts over Israel s willingness to make peace in region. Arab leaders are expected during their annual summit in Saudi Arabia later this month to focus on the possible revival of the 2002 initiative to end the Arab-Israeli conflict. Syria cautioned against making changes to the initiative saying, it absolutely rejected for some hostile fingers to toy, directly or through brokers, with the agenda of the [upcoming] summit so that its decisions would come in harmony with the Israeli and American interests, the Tishrin government newspaper reported in a front-page editorial. The peace initiative was adopted at an Arab League summit in Lebanon in March 2002 and offered Israel normal relations with the Arab world for the first time in exchange for a complete withdrawal from captured territory. Israel reacted skeptically at the time, rejecting an addition that requires Israel to recognize the demand to take back Palestinian refugees from the 1948-49 war that followed creation of the Jewish state, as well as their descendants - an estimated 4 million people. Israel has offered compensation instead, maintaining that demanding a right of return is a way of undermining the Jewish character of the state and destroying it from within. On Sunday, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said in a speech during an Arab foreign ministers meeting in Egypt that the Arab peace initiative expressed an Arab consensus and will not be redrafted as demanded by some foreign powers. Last week, Israeli newspapers quoted Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni as saying Israel would not accept the Arab peace plan as it is and asked to drop any reference to the right of the Palestinians displaced to return to their homes inside the Jewish state. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev has said the current peace initiative is unacceptable. The Israeli foreign minister announced in a rude and impolite way that looks like an order directed to Arabs, that Israel wants the Riyadh summit to ... make some amendments, the Tishrin editorial read. He who refuses to allow the return of refugees, withdrawal from lands occupied by force and calls for peace-for-peace could never be a peace advocate, the paper said. Tishrin said Arabs should not abandon their rights and questioned Why do some of us try to placate the US master and Israel at the expense of the Arab people s principles and their rights and existence?
