Munaeem's Blog : Hoping US, Arab solution will get Israeli nod

The Palestinian Al Quds welcomed the visit of the peace Quartet envoy Tony Blair as well as the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan to Israel to promote the Arab peace initiative.

The Jerusalem-based daily said in its editorial that the visit of Egyptian foreign minister, Ahmed Abul Gheit, and his Jordanian counterpart, Abdel Ilah Al Khatib, is an "advanced Arab step to move forward the peace process."

It added it hoped their statements about a positive Israeli response to the Arab initiative and the Israeli promises are more than just words that have real value.

The mainstream paper, close to Fatah, said it hoped the initiative would not be shelved like previous ones and that real progress will be presented by the Egyptians and Jordanians to the rest of their Arab colleagues in a report next week.

Real progress, it said, should be ready by the time US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visits the region for talks on moving forward towards a just peace settlement.

Nevertheless, the paper wondered whether the coming days "will hold anything new, or are all these [moves] nothing more than sedatives that we have become accustomed to?"