A Peace Plan for September

Following his meeting with President Obama yesterday in Washington, Egyptian President Mubarak said that the U.S. will present a detailed peace plan for the Middle East in September. This follows claims circulating earlier this month by Defense Minister Barak that Obama would announce an Israel-Palestinian peace plan within weeks.

According to Maya Bengal in Ma'ariv, the Obama administration is intensively organizing to launch his plan at the UN General Assembly next month, with the possibility of a three-way summit meeting with Prime Minister Netanyahu and PA Chairman Abu Mazen.

The summit will symbolize the end of the diplomatic standstill and the beginning of dialogue for a regional peace agreement. Jerusalem officials believe that on this occasion, Obama will lay out his diplomatic doctrine, which will evidently include the involvement of the Arab states and their steps toward normalization with Israel.

Ha'aretz reports that Suleiman Awad, a spokesman for Mubarak, said that "the two presidents had agreed that time was of the essence in forging an Israeli-Palestinian deal, and a detailed plan with a clear vision of how a final agreement would look was necessary." After the meeting, Awad said that Obama promised Mubarak a plan by next month after meetings between American and Israeli officials. "President Obama said that hopefully after... next week there will be a final blueprint to be declared in the course of next month." Netanyahu is scheduled to meet with Middle East Envoy George Mitchell next week in London.

Although the White House has not yet confirmed Egypt's assertions of an imminent plan, Obama alluded to a possible peace plan in his joint press conference with Mubarak yesterday:

...it's possible for us to see some positive steps and hopefully negotiate towards a final resolution of these longstanding issues. But everybody is going to have to take steps; everybody is going to have to take some risks. It's going to require a lot of hard work, and the United States is committed to being a partner in this process. And Egypt will be as important as any other party in helping to move the process forward because Egypt is uniquely positioned in some ways having very strong relationships with Israel, with the Palestinians, and with other Arab states, and President Mubarak has as much experience in the region as anybody.

The New York Times reports:

Mr. Mubarak said through an interpreter that he supported American efforts to achieve a lasting peace, particularly attempts to get Israelis and Palestinians "to sit together and to get something from the Israeli party and to get something from the Palestinian party."

"If we perhaps can get them to sit together, we will help," Mr. Mubarak said. At another point, in an allusion to restarting overall peace talks, he virtually echoed Mr. Obama's remarks, saying, "We are moving in the right direction."