RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA — Bush administration attempts to revive Arab-Israeli peace talks suffered a setback Wednesday as leaders at an Arab League summit here, including the heads of state of several U.S. allies, condemned Washington's foreign policy and refused to budge on a peace proposal that Israeli officials have criticized.
Saudi King Abdullah condemned the "illegitimate foreign occupation" of Iraq, and Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa lamented "the absence of honest mediation" in the Arab-Israeli conflict, a shot at U.S. officials perceived as too pro-Israeli.
"In our beloved Iraq, blood is shed among brothers under ... illegitimate foreign occupation and detestable sectarianism that raises the threat of a civil war," said the king, the summit's host.
A host of pressing problems threatening this volatile, oil-rich region arose during the first sessions of the two-day summit.
They included the standoff between Iran and Britain over Tehran's capture of 15 sailors and marines in the Persian Gulf, fears of an impending nuclear arms race, the situation in Iraq and the standoff between government and opposition forces in Lebanon.
But the festering conflict between Palestinians and Israelis, viewed by many as the wellspring for the region's rising Islamic radicalism, took center stage at the summit. Abdullah, in a forceful speech, condemned the U.S.-backed aid boycott of the Palestinian Authority government led by Hamas militants who don't recognize Israel's right to exist.
"In wounded Palestine, the resistant [Palestinian] people are still suffering from oppression and occupation, deprived of their right to independence and to have a country," the Saudi king told the arriving diplomats.
Saudis want to revive their 2002 peace plan in which they proposed granting Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for a host of concessions, including the withdrawal of Israeli forces from land occupied after the 1967 Middle East War and a "just solution" for Palestinians who fled their homes after Israel's founding in 1948.
Israel, which shunned the proposal in the past, has warmed to it in recent months under U.S. pressure. The nation called on the Arab League to revise the document and praised Saudi attempts at generating a dialogue.
"We see it as a positive -- the fact that the Arab community wants to talk with Israel after years of isolation. It's a positive change," said Yariv Ovadia, the Israeli Foreign Ministry's deputy spokesman. "I hope this will encourage the Palestinians to do the same."
