Saudi Arabia, Arab League and EU hold Arab Peace Initiative meeting in New York

The proposal to end the Arab-Israeli conflict was launched by the kingdom in 2002

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan. EPA

Saudi Foreign Minister Prince Faisal bin Farhan and Arab League Secretary General Ahmed Aboul Gheit attended a meeting of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee and its sponsors in the EU.

The meeting took place at the UN General Assembly in New York, the official Saudi news agency reported on Wednesday.

Tuesday's meeting was hosted by EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell, who hailed the initiative in a tweet.

“Building on the API, today, we started a conversation on the Middle East Peace Process to explore how we can achieve lasting peace and security for all,” Mr Borrell said.

The Saudi news agency described the initiative as a “starting point for the Palestinian, Arab and Islamic position” and a “fundamental basis for any solution to the peace process for international partners, and in light of the absence of prospects for a political solution to end the conflict”.

It said: “The meeting aims to work with regional and international partners to shed light on the tragic situation suffered by the Palestinians in light of the complete obstruction of the peace process and the absence of any glimmer of hope, and to urge them to take practical steps to support the resumption of dialogue on the basis of the Arab Peace Initiative and relevant United Nations resolutions and peace references.”

The members of the Arab Peace Initiative Committee are Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Tunisia, Algeria, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Iraq, Palestine, Qatar, Lebanon, Morocco and Yemen.

The European countries sponsoring the peace initiative are Spain, Sweden and France.

The Arab Peace Initiative, which Saudi Arabia launched in 2002, is a proposal to end the Arab-Israeli conflict.

The Arab League endorsed the peace plan at the Beirut Summit that same year, and several Arab nations said they would normalise ties with Israel in return for complete Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian land captured in 1967 and the creation of a Palestinian state.

In May, the Saudi foreign minister said at a Davos seminar that normalisation of ties with Israel hinged on a solution to the conflict.