Sharon agrees to talk with Saudis

JERUSALEM -- Prime Minister Ariel Sharon told an EU envoy Tuesday he was willing to meet Saudi officials, publicly or behind the scenes, to explore their proposals for an overall Mideast peace, the European diplomat said. \nThe proposals floated by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah have gotten a warm response from the Palestinians, some Arab nations and some Israeli officials -- including the foreign and defense ministers. Sharon's aides, however, say they want more details. \nJavier Solana, the European Union's foreign affairs chief, announced that he was making a previously unscheduled trip to Riyadh Wednesday to hear details of the Saudi peace plan first hand from Abdullah. \nIsraeli officials said at this point, the initiative is only a newspaper article. It states the principle that in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank, Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem, the entire Arab world would make peace with the Jewish state. \nPalestinians have endorsed the Saudi initiative, saying it fits their policy of offering Israel full peace for full withdrawal. \nSolana said Sharon told him he "would be willing to meet anybody from Saudi Arabia, formally, informally, publicly, discreetly, whatever, to get better information about the significance of this idea." \nSaudi Arabia has not commented on the reaction to the proposals. The state-run newspaper Al-Watan, which usually reflects government thinking, said no Israeli-Saudi visits could take place until a Mideast peace agreement had been reached. \nPresident Bush telephoned the Saudi crown prince Tuesday to express U.S. hopes of working with him "in the pursuit of Middle East peace," White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said. \nHowever, Fleischer appeared to question the plan's bottom line. \n"It's important to have a vision of what peace should look like at the end of the day," he said, "but it's a long time until the end of the day in the Middle East." \nIn an attempt to address a more immediate concern -- bringing calm after 17 months of violence -- Israeli and Palestinian security chiefs resumed talks Tuesday on measures to stop violence and ease Israeli restrictions over Palestinian territory. \nPalestinian officials, insisting on anonymity, confirmed that the meeting began in Tel Aviv after nightfall. Israeli officials refused to comment. \nThe security chiefs met Thursday after an especially violent week of Palestinian attacks and Israeli reprisals. However, the Palestinians called off a meeting set for Sunday, expressing anger over Israel's refusal to lift restrictions on Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat, who has been confined to the West Bank town of Ramallah for nearly three months. \nArafat said he ordered the talks restarted after a plea from Solana. \n"This is a request from our friend, Javier Solana, and to that I cannot say no," Arafat told reporters. \nSolana said he had more details about the Saudi plan than appeared in Saudi and U.S. media, but he would not disclose them. \nRussian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov voiced his country's support for the plan. Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states with peace treaties with Israel, were among several Arab states to welcome Abdullah's comments. \nEgyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah discussed the Saudi proposal during a meeting in Cairo Tuesday. \nIsraeli Defense Minister Ben-Eliezer said Tuesday that Saudi plan "contains positive elements and should be encouraged." \nBen-Eliezer heads the moderate Labor party, partner with Sharon's hawkish Likud in a broad-based coalition government. \nIt is unlikely that the coalition would survive dealing directly with the issue of borders between Israel and a Palestinian state. Labor favors giving up most of the territory for peace, including the dismantling of many Jewish settlements. In contrast, Sharon has talked of offering the Palestinians a state in about 40 percent of the West Bank and much of Gaza, without removing settlements. \nHowever, up to now even Labor has rejected withdrawal from all the territories Israel captured in the 1967 war, as the Palestinians have demanded. Foreign Minister Shimon Peres of Labor told Israel TV Tuesday that unlike the Arab interpretation, Israel does not believe that U.N. Security Council resolutions require a pullback to the pre-1967 war line. \n"There is a disagreement between us and the Palestinians on this issue, and there is no reason to deny it," Peres said during a visit to Paris. \nExpressing qualified interest in the Saudi proposal, Sharon aides have been careful to praise the initiative while disagreeing with its contents. \nSharon adviser Daniel Ayalon said he expected Solana's trip to Riyadh to provide much-needed clarification of the Saudi plan. \n"We still expect to hear whether there is actually an initiative," he said. "We can't rely just on media reports." \nAfter two Palestinians and three Israelis were killed in violent incidents Monday, Tuesday was relatively calm, with the Israeli military reporting a few Palestinian gunfire attacks on West Bank roads but no serious injuries.