NEW YORK - Israel and the Arab world are at a turning point in their search for a peace deal, Saudi Foreign Minister Saud al-Faisal said in an interview published Monday, a day ahead of US-sponsored peace talks.
Saud told Time magazine that the talks opening in Annapolis just east of Washington on Tuesday represented a key opportunity and warned that the cost of failure would be further bloodshed in the region.
"I think this is really a turning point. The next conflict will be very dangerous," he said.
"One of the elements of optimism is the sense of determination of the United States to see this through," he said, adding that he believed in the ability of US President George W. Bush's administration to steer the peace process.
"We have confidence in that. I hope we are proven right," he said. "With their continuous involvement, and serious intent, this can turn things around."
He warned that failure to reach a peace accord would increase the trend toward radicalism and make it easier for militant groups to find recruits.
"Israel has to make a choice... It is time for them to try a different policy, a policy of accepting to live with the Palestinians," he said, accusing the Jewish state of basing its policies on force for the last 60 years.
"We don't need a Versailles for the Arab world, a peace that will only be an instigator of future wars," he said, in reference to the peace accord that ended World War I.
Asked if he believed a comprehensive peace agreement was achievable by the time Bush leaves office in January 2009, the foreign minister said "of course."
"Every man on the street and every woman on the street, not only the politicians, knows what the settlement will look like in the end. It just needs the action to bring it about," he said.
"It is a very simple equation. Either Israel wants peace or territory. It can't have both."
Prince Saud, whose attendance at the peace talks represents the most senior Saudi involvement in a peace conference alongside an Israeli leader, said he would not shake hands with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert at the talks.
"This is not theater. We are going seriously for peace negotiations. We are not going there just to take pictures of somebody shaking somebody's hand."
"The hand that has been extended to us has been a fist so far. Once it opens for peace, it will be shaken," he said.
Saud, whose country was behind proposals for a comprehensive Middle East peace plan that was adopted as an Arab peace initiative in 2002, said that Annapolis could be seen as the last chance for peace in the Middle East.
"I think if it is not the last chance, it is the precursor of the end of the one direction and the beginning of a new direction in the Middle East, and a disturbing one at that," he said.
jah/ddl
11/26/2007 15:40 GMT