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Arab League Backs Israeli-Palestinian Land Swaps
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry (L) arrives with Qatar's Prime Minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim al-Thani (2nd L) at a meeting with members of the Arab League at Blair House in Washington Apr. 29, 2013.
VOA News
April 29, 2013
A senior Arab League delegation visiting Washington has expressed support for the principle of Israel and the Palestinians negotiating their future borders through land swaps.
After meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry at Blair House Monday, Qatar's prime minister said his delegation supports "comparable" and "minor" land swaps through mutual agreement by the two sides in the conflict.
The comment by Qatari Prime Minister Sheik Hamad Bin Jassem Al Thani appears to represent a modification of the Arab League's decade-old initiative for peace with Israel. That initiative has called on Israel to withdraw from all land occupied in the 1967 Middle East War and return to its pre-1967 boundaries in return for a full peace with all Arab League members.
This latest Arab position also appears to reflect an endorsement of President Barack Obama's 2011 peace guidelines that called for Israel and the Palestinians to negotiate their borders on the basis of the 1967 lines with "mutually agreed swaps."
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas repeatedly has called on Israel to accept the 1967 lines as a basis for peace talks.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said a return to those lines would leave Israel with indefensible borders, and he has rejected setting any preconditions for talks. He also has declined to make any public comment about the idea of swapping parts of pre-1967 Israel in return for annexing major Jewish settlement blocs in the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians claim all of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza Strip for a future state.
Vice President Joe Biden joined Kerry's meeting with the Arab League delegation, which included senior ministers from six Arab governments.
Biden's presence at the talks was aimed at showing the Arab ministers the importance the Obama administration places on the Arab peace initiative.
Israel had no immediate comment on the Arab League's new statement.