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Muasher: Obama Should Try To Solve Conflict in a 'Few Months'

In an interview with Akiva Eldar, Marwan Muasher, Jordan’s former foreign minister and its first ambassador to Israel, warns that the failure of the Arab peace initiative will signal the end of the “two-state” paradigm.
Jordan's Minister for Foreign Affairs Marwan Muasher addresses the 59th Session of the United Nations General Assembly at U.N headquarters in New York, September 27, 2004. REUTERS/Jeff Christensen REUTERS  JC - RTRBWE5
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Among reports about President Barack Obama’s intention to restart the diplomatic process, which he will bring with him to Jerusalem and Ramallah on his visit next month, one especially prominent report says the senior visitor plans to pull the Arab Peace Initiative out of his hat. This initiative offers Israel a groundbreaking deal: “in exchange for a complete withdrawal from the occupied territories (including East Jerusalem) and a ‘just settlement’ of the Palestinian refugee problem (based on U.N. Resolution 194), all Arab states will recognize Israel and declare a normalization of relations with Israel.

The surprising regional peace plan, known as “the Saudi Initiative”, took off at the end of 2001, a short time after the September 11th terror attacks.

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