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| By Israel Insider staff September 30, 2007 |
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Despite Saudi calls to halt the construction of the security fence, senior diplomatic sources said that Israel will not cease building just to encourage Saudi Arabia's participation in the upcoming peace summit. "Israel has its own security needs that we have to address," an official said.
Until recently, Israel had rejected the terms upon which Saudi Arabia said its attendance was contingent. The Sunni-led nation is demanding a complete withdrawal from the Golan Heights, Gaza and Judea and Samaria, among other things.
And the Saudis are demanding that Israel make territorial concessions first.
"Recognition comes, but comes after peace, not before peace," Prince Saud al-Faisal said.
The peculiar passive wording, of course, does not say from whom recognition would come.
The Saudi prince also appeared non-committal and unenthusiastic about the status of Israeli-PA negotiations, or his own countries role at the conference, if any.
"It is not Saudi Arabia that puts conditions, or Saudi Arabia that is going to negotiate," the prince told reporters Wednesday on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.
"Its presence there, or non-presence, is not the most significant issue." Regarding the planned conference, he waxed metaphorical: "We have been shown a canvas with some brushstrokes that have nice colors in them ... but we don't yet know if it is a portrait or a landscape that we are looking at."
An Israeli government official said that Prince Saud al-Faisal's comments were "interesting," adding that Israel always took into consideration what the Saudis have to say. |
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