MID EAST: Iran said yesterday that Saudi Arabia's Middle East peace initiative was well-intentioned but lacked detail necessary for Tehran to declare its stand.
"There is no doubt that [Saudi Crown] Prince Abdullah's plan stems from his goodwill, but it is an idea, a very general plan, and not a specific plan of action that takes every detail into account," the Foreign Minister, Mr Kamal Kharrazi, said.
Mr Kharrazi's remarks came during a news conference with his visiting Syrian counterpart, Mr Farouq al-Shara, who visited Saudi Arabia yesterday along with President Bashar al-Assad for talks on the kingdom's initiative.
"We heard Crown Prince Abdullah describe his plan and we are happy with what we heard," Mr Shara said without elaborating.
Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler since King Fahd suffered a stroke in 1995, proposed last month that Arab states should establish full ties with Israel if the Jewish state quit all Arab lands occupied in the 1967 Middle East war. Saudi officials say Prince Abdullah wants to consult all Arab leaders before he drafts the plan's details.
"Any plan that guarantees the Palestinian refugees' right to return to their homeland, allows for the complete liberation of occupied Palestinian land and allows for the liberation of Jerusalem is a positive upheaval and in line with the liberation of the whole of Palestine," Mr Kharrazi said.
"But the attitude of Israel towards this plan has been negative . . . just as they have rejected UN resolutions pertaining to the Palestinians' rights," he added.
Damascus, Tehran's key Arab ally, has thrown its weight behind the Saudi initiative, substantially improving prospects that it will be adopted at an Arab summit in Beirut this month. As a "frontline" state in the conflict with Israel, which still occupies the Syrian Golan Heights captured in 1967, Syria's assent to the Saudi proposal is vital. - (Reuters)