No interim peace deal with Israel: Saudi FM

UNITED NATIONS (Agencies) - Arab nations will totally reject any partial or interim solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict because historically such arrangements have become permanent, Saudi Arabia’s Foreign Minister0 said Saturday.

While supporting current Israeli-Palestinian negotiations to reach “a comprehensive final solution”, Prince Saud Al-Faisal said, “The least that we expect from Israel during these negotiations is that it should halt all settlement operations.”

“The continuation of settlement activity in the occupied Arab territories renders the negotiations meaningless and makes it difficult for us to convince our peoples of the feasibility and benefits of achieving peace,” he said.

At a Security Council meeting Friday on Israeli settlements, held at Saudi Arabia’s request, Saud said the settlement problem is the “one issue that threatens to bring down the whole peace process.”

He said that addressing it was the only way to save the peace deal brokered in Annapolis, Maryland, early this year by President Bush’s administration, which set the goal of achieving a substantive peace accord by January 2009 when he leaves office.