Israeli ambassador speaks of fresh Palestine peace initiative

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Israel is pressing for a fresh Middle East peace initiative involving Arab states, Mark Regev, the Israeli ambassador to the UK, told a meeting at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London as pro-Palestinian activists mounted a vocal protest outside.
Regev said Israel “wants to see larger and greater involvement from the Arab world” in new peace negotiations. Pragmatic Sunni Arab states saw a “convergence of interest” with Israel in relation to Iran and had “significant cards to play”, he added. He said that Israel had approached Donald Trump’s administration about “trying to get the peace process back on track”.

Protesters’ chants were clearly audible from the first-floor seminar room at the London university college where Regev engaged in an hour-long question-and-answer session with an audience of about 60 people. There was heavy Israeli security inside, while police officers monitored the protest outside.

For the most part, Regev restated familiar Israeli government positions on settlements, barriers and checkpoints and the prospects of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

 

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