Arabs look to link help on stabilizing Iraq to Israel-Palestinian peace deal

CAIRO, Egypt -- Moderate Arab governments plan to tell Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice they will help Washington stabilize Iraq if the United States takes more active steps to revive a broad peace initiative between Israel and its neighbors, Arab officials and media said Sunday.

The deal, dubbed "Iraq for Land," is expected to be proposed during a meeting between Rice and her counterparts from eight Arab countries in Kuwait on Tuesday.

It echoes widespread Arab feelings that a lasting Middle East peace cannot be achieved as long as Israel doesn't reach a settlement to hand over lands it occupied during the 1967 Mideast war to the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.

In Jordan, King Abdullah told Rice on Sunday that he wants his U.S. ally to apply as much diplomatic energy on the Israeli-Palestinian matter as on Iraq.

Abdullah "called on the United States to actively push for a revival of Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations that would lead to the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state," a Jordanian statement said.

The monarch said a solution to the conflict should be based on the "Arab Peace Initiative," which was unveiled at an Arab summit in Lebanon in 2002 and calls for Israel to withdraw from all territory occupied in 1967 in return for full recognition by Arab countries.

In the United States, a bipartisan panel on Iraq headed by former Secretary of State James A. Baker III said in December that progress on the Israeli-Palestinian dispute could help calm Iraq, and British Prime Minister Tony Blair says a resolution to the conflict is key to Mideast stability.

Israel disputes those conclusions. The U.S. ambassador to Israel, Richard Jones, recently said that an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal would "be a huge plus for regional stability," though not in itself the key to pacifying Iraq.

Rice arrived in the region on Saturday for a weeklong tour to explore a fresh start in the Israeli-Palestinian peace effort and to muster support for U.S. policy in Iraq, but warned that enduring Mideast peace cannot be stamped "Made in America."

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally who meets with Rice today, said he wrote to President Bush urging him to help restart peace negotiations along broader lines than the long-stalled "road map" plan that calls for temporary measures before working on a final accord.

"We have a clear vision for a political horizon that will provide an opportunity to reach a just and comprehensive peace settlement," Mubarak was quoted as saying Sunday in the state-owned newspaper Rose El-Youssef.

"It is high time that the Palestinian cause be given a push, which will open the door for other tracks," he added, apparently referring to Israel's long-stalled dealings with Syria.

Arab diplomats said Mubarak's views -- shared by other key regional leaders -- will be presented forcefully to Rice when she meets with Arab foreign ministers in Kuwait.

"She will listen to one voice (saying) that if the United States wants Arabs' help in Iraq they should help them in Palestine," said one Arab diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the talks.

Bush announced on Wednesday his decision to send 21,500 more U.S. troops to Iraq to try to stabilize the country and warned Arab nations against a surge in extremism in the region should the U.S. fail. He called on Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and the Persian Gulf states to increase their support for Iraq's fledgling government.

Arab officials say leaders of the region's heavily Sunni Muslim nations aren't eager to help the Iraqi government, which is dominated by Shiite Muslims and deemed too close to the hardline Shiite regime in Iran.

But these Sunni leaders also appear terrified at the prospect of a U.S. withdrawal, which they worry will lead to all-out civil war in Iraq.

"Unity of Iraq is necessary. Independence of Iraq is necessary, and peace in Iraq is necessary," said Saudi Arabia's foreign minister, Saud al-Faisal.