SUWEIMEH, Jordan:
A top Omani government official yesterday said Arabs must take initiatives to
make Israel overcome "fears for its future" in the region, drawing
criticism from Jordan. The remarks by Yusuf bin Alawi bin Abdullah, the
minister responsible for foreign affairs in Oman, came on the sidelines of the
World Economic Forum hosted by Jordan on the shores of the Dead Sea. "The
West has offered Israel political, economic and military support and it now
holds all the means of power... but despite that it fears for its future as a
non-Arab country surrounded by 400 million Arabs," he said.

"I believe
that we Arabs must be able to look into this issue and try to ease those fears
that Israel has through initiatives and real deals between us and Israel,"
he told a panel discussing geopolitics. The panel's moderator, journalist
Hadley Gamble, interrupted him to ask if the best solution to the decades-long
Israeli-Palestinian conflict is "recognizing Israel and its right to
exist". The minister said no. "Not recognizing, but we want them
themselves to feel that there are no threats to their future."

Jordanian Foreign
Minister Ayman Safadi, whose country is the only Arab nation along with Egypt
to have a peace treaty with Israel, dismissed the remarks saying "the
issue is that there is an occupation" of Arab land. "The Arab world
has recognized Israel's right to exist. The Palestinians themselves recognized
the Israeli right to exist... that is not the issue," Safadi told the
panel. "The issue is that there is an occupation. Is this occupation going
to end or not?

Israel, Safadi
said, must "withdraw from Arab lands occupied since 1967 and allow"
the creation of a Palestinian state. "This is the issue," he said.
"If they (Israel) say they are not comfortable, that is not my
problem," said Safadi. "The problem is not with Arabs giving
assurances... the problem is with Israel doing what is right for peace,"
he added. "Israel... is not doing the right thing. Actually it is doing
more of the wrong things by suffocating Palestinians," the Jordanian
foreign minister said, referring to the Israeli-blockaded Gaza Strip.
"Gaza, is probably as you heard many times, the world's largest prison,"
he added.

In recent months,
Israel has been courting Gulf Arab states. In February, Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu met one-on-one with Bin Alawi at an international conference
in Warsaw, attended by officials from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain and the United Arab
Emirates. In October last year, Netanyahu held surprise talks with Oman's
Sultan Qaboos in Muscat - raising Palestinian fears of a normalization of ties.

Last year bin
Alawi told a regional conference in Bahrain it might be "time for Israel
to be treated the same (as states in the Middle East) and also bear the same
obligations". Bahrain endorsed the remarks which at the time were said to
be aimed at moving the Israeli-Palestinian "narrative from intractability
to a new focus of pragmatism".

Meanwhile,
Netanyahu said he has told US President Donald Trump that Israel would not
remove "even one person" from a settlement as part of a future peace
plan. "I said there shouldn't be the removal of even one settlement"
from the occupied West Bank, Netanyahu told Israel's Channel 13 television in
an interview broadcast Friday. Washington is expected to unveil proposals for
Israeli-Palestinian peace sometime after Tuesday's Israeli election in which
Netanyahu is seeking a fifth term.

The Israeli prime
minister was asked if he was familiar with the details of the US plan, replying
he knew "what should be in it". Along with settlements, "our
ongoing control of all the territory west of the Jordan" River was a
further condition set by the Israeli premier for any US-led peace initiative.
Netanyahu said he informed Trump not "even one person" would be
evicted from a settlement, telling Channel 13 he doubted such a request would
be made. If such a measure is tabled, Israel would pull out of Washington's
plan according to Netanyahu.

Settlements built
on land occupied by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War are deemed illegal by the
international community and their ongoing construction is seen as a major
barrier to peace. More than 400,000 Israelis live in West Bank settlements,
while a further 200,000 live in settlements in occupied east Jerusalem. While
Netanyahu has a close relationship with the US president, Palestinian president
Mahmoud Abbas cut off relations with Washington after Trump declared the
disputed city of Jerusalem Israel's capital in December 2017.

The Palestinians
say the US government's pro-Israel bias meant it could no longer lead peace
negotiations between them and Israel, while US officials argue their plan will
be fair. Israeli-Palestinian peace efforts have been at a standstill since
2014, when a drive for a deal by Barack Obama's administration collapsed.
Netanyahu said Friday his position on settlers had also been relayed to the
former US president. - Agencies