Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Maher warned Israel on Tuesday night against "playing with words" over the peace proposal recently floated by Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah bin Abdul Aziz, according to AFP.
"If Israel tries to cheat and to concentrate on just one side of these ideas - the normalization of relations (with Arab countries) - and rejects the essential part, which is the return to the borders of June 4, 1967, that would be playing with words," Maher said.
The Egyptian Foreign Minister was speaking at a press conference with visiting Danish counterpart, Per Stig Moeller.
Maher said that the basis of the Middle East problem was Israel's occupation of Arab territory and that the solution was an exchange of land for peace.
Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia's de facto ruler, last week proposed an initiative in which he suggested that the Arab world might recognize Israel if it would pullout from Arab territories captured during the 1967 Middle East war.
Maher went on to say that Israeli approval "of these various ideas would be well received" by Egypt.
In addition, he criticized Israel for keeping Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat confined in the West Bank town of Ramallah, where he was under virtual house arrest since early December until this week.
The Israeli cabinet Sunday withdrew the blockade on Arafat's compound, but still refuses to let him leave the city.
Maher accused Israel of not keeping its promises to remove restrictions on Arafat once he had arrested militants sought by Israel and of "seeking pretexts to continue its aggressive policy, not only against the Palestinian people, but against peace."
For his part, Moeller said he was encouraged by the situation, adding that Saudi Arabia's efforts to revive the moribund Middle East peace process give hope for a lasting settlement.
He also stressed what he said was the need for both parties to return to the negotiating table, highlighting the concept of land-for-peace as the way to end the crisis.
Moeller, whose country takes over the rotating European Union (EU) presidency in July, is on a tour of the region that will also include Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. (Albawaba.com)
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