Israel exploring Saudi peace proposal

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon reportedly wants to contact Saudi authorities about a peace proposal.

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Israeli officials moved on several fronts Monday to learn more about a Saudi peace proposal that would involve Arab recognition of Israel in return for an Israeli withdrawal from Palestinian territories.

Israeli President Moshe Katsav on Monday invited Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah to come to Jerusalem to present his plan, his office said, and Israel Radio reported that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants details on the proposal in order to form an Israeli response.

Katsav said he also would go to Saudi Arabia to discuss the plan with the crown prince if he is invited to Riyadh.

Katsav's office said the president believes the proposal is important and the details should be discussed directly with the Israeli government.

He told reporters, "I very much hope that if a Saudi ruler will not come to Jerusalem, he will invite the rulers of Israel to Saudi Arabia. We would be happy to go to him. If we were invited to Riyadh, I would be glad to go there."

VIDEO The United States considers a Saudi plan for Mideast peace. CNN's Major Garrett reports Play video (QuickTime, Real or Windows Media)   MORE STORIES • Arafat: Security talks with Israel to resume  • Israeli policewoman dies after gunman opens fire

Also Monday, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat said Palestinians would resume security talks with Israel and the United States on Tuesday, with the aim of reducing violence in the region.(Full story)

Pre-1967 borders proposed

U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell talked Sunday evening with Abdullah, exchanging "views on the most important developments in the region and numbers of topics of mutual concern," according to the Saudi news agency.

Aides report that Sharon has said a meeting needs to be arranged with Abdullah, either openly or secretly, to discuss the proposal.

The plan, which has not been formally proposed but reported in a column in The New York Times, would have all Arab states in the region recognize Israel in exchange for Israel withdrawing from the Palestinian territories back to the borders that existed before the Six-Day War in 1967.

Israel has occupied the West Bank and Gaza since that conflict, but began granting Palestinians limited self-rule in 1993 under the Oslo accords. The territory controlled by Arafat's Palestinian Authority remains dispersed and intersected by Israeli civilian and military installations.

Few Arab states currently recognize Israel.

Israeli Cabinet Secretary Gideon Saar, in an interview broadcast Monday, said, "Under the assumption that what has been published is correct, it must be said that we're speaking of a positive trend."

Saar said Israel would oppose going back to the 1967 borders but left open the possibility of negotiations on the plan.

Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres called the proposal a "fascinating, interesting opportunity."

Bush: Welcomes thoughts of Arab leaders

Last week, Peres expressed doubts about Abdullah's proposal but said he would welcome Saudi Arabia's participation in the peace process.

"It's the first time that Saudi Arabia has taken an open position that calls for peace," Peres said.

The Jerusalem daily newspaper Ha'aretz reported Sharon told the Cabinet he had "taken several steps" on the Saudi plan and was awaiting word from Washington on the details.

The United States has welcomed the plan, even though it hasn't been formally introduced.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said Monday that President Bush "welcomes the thoughts of Arab leaders who want to contribute" to the peace process.

U.S. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher called the developments a "positive" step.

"They do highlight the importance of not giving up the goal of a just and lasting peace and the need to do all we can to help end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict," he said Friday.

Tanks pull back from Arafat's compound

Israeli tanks completed a pullback early Monday from their positions just outside Arafat's compound in Ramallah after the Israeli Cabinet's decision Sunday to allow the Palestinian leader to leave the compound but continue to restrict him from traveling outside the West Bank city.

Israel Radio reported Sharon and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer would consider any request by Arafat to travel outside Ramallah.

The Palestinians, who said Arafat already had been moving regularly about Ramallah, responded by canceling a security meeting Sunday with the Israelis aimed at trying to reduce conflict in the region.

A Sharon spokesman told Israel Radio that the Palestinians had misinterpreted the Cabinet move in which 12 members voted for the change and two abstained. He said the decision was "the first small step in easing tensions" following Arafat's arrest of three suspects in the October killing of Israeli Tourism Minister Rechavam Ze'evi.

In the latest violent incident, an Israeli policewoman died Tuesday of wounds she received when a gunman opened fire at a bus stop in a Jewish neighborhood on the northern edge of Jerusalem, police said. Nine other people were wounded, one of them seriously. (Full story)