AL urges Obama to spell out Mideast policy

CAIRO (AFP) - The Arab League called on US President Barack Obama on Saturday to use a keynote address in Egypt next month to spell out his administrations policy on the Middle East peace process.
The 22-nation bloc said that by then he will have met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Washingtons key Arab allies, allowing him to have worked out a detailed strategy.
We expect the US President to announce his policy towards the Israeli-Arab conflict during his visit to Egypt, said the Leagues Assistant Secretary-General Hisham Yussef.
By then he will have listened to the parties to the conflict and so will be able to spell out his policy, Yussef told AFP.
During his election campaign, Obama promised to address Muslims in a bid to mend the US image in the Islamic world. He is to do so in Egypt on June 4, the White House announced on Friday.
Obama has pledged Washingtons continuing support for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict despite the new Israeli PMs refusal to commit his govt to a Palestinian state. Arab FMs welcomed the Obamas position at a meeting in Cairo on Thursday.
But Yussef warned that while Arabs should avoid excessive pessimism over the Netanyahu govts position, they should also refrain from getting overly optimistic about the pronouncements from Washington.
Arab governments have set out to the Obama Administration their consistent positions, which are very clear - no negotiations with Israel without a halt to settlement activity and an end to Israeli violations in Jerusalem, he said.
We will not accept a policy of tiny steps at a time and we also want a lifting of the Israeli blockade imposed on the Gaza Strip ever since the Hamas seized control of the territory.
The Israeli violations Yussef was referring to in Jerusalem are principally a spate of house demolitions in the citys Arab eastern sector which have drawn condemnation from Arab govts.
The official said the Arab world was not opposed to a call by US Vice-President Joe Biden to make meaningful gestures towards ending the Jewish states isolation but that Israel had first to honour its side of the bargain.
We are ready to make concrete and measured gestures but only if it genuinely honours its undertakings, above all a halt to settlement activity in the West Bank and violations in east Jerusalem, he said.
Yussef recalled that the Arab League had already made a significant overture in April 2007 by sending the Egyptian and Jordanian foreign ministers as envoys to Israel to set out an Arab peace plan.
The plan, first adopted in 2002, offers Israel full normalisation of relations in return for a full withdrawal from all the territories it occupied in the 1967 Middle East war, a Palestinian state and an equitable solution to the Palestinian refugee problem.
But Yussef stressed: Arab governments are absolutely not willing to make concessions to Israel without getting anything in return, particularly when the Israeli government has announced extremely negative policies.