Arabs look to link Iraq, Mideast deal

[struggle4progress]

1/14/2007, 7:39 p.m. CT
By SALAH NASRAWI
The Associated Press

CAIRO, Egypt (AP) — Moderate Arab governments plan to tell Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice they will help Washington stabilize Iraq if the U.S. takes more active steps to revive a broad peace initiative between Israel and its neighbors, Arab officials and media said Sunday.

The deal, dubbed "Iraq for Land," is expected to be proposed during a meeting between Rice and her counterparts from eight Arab countries in Kuwait on Tuesday.

It echoes widespread Arab feelings that a lasting Middle East peace cannot be achieved as long as Israel doesn't reach a settlement to hand over lands it occupied during the 1967 Mideast war to the Palestinians, Syria and Lebanon.

In Jordan, King Abdullah told Rice on Sunday that he wants his U.S. ally to apply as much diplomatic energy on the Israeli-Palestinian matter as on Iraq ...

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