Qatar offers rare praise for Israel
(AP)
Updated: 2005-09-16 08:58

"It could happen," he told reporters before heading into the closed meeting with Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom. "But we need to see a timetable — how we will start the peace process and how we will end."

Posing for photographs with the Qatari minister, Shalom said he welcomed the fact that Israel's once-covert meetings with Arab leaders were now out in the open. "There's no reason to continue with secrecy," he said.

The two foreign ministers said there were no plans yet for a summit between Sharon and the emir of Qatar, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani. On Thursday, Sharon spokesman Asaf Shariv said Israel was working on arranging talks.

Shalom urged Arab and Islamic states to open contacts with Israel if they want to help the cause of peace in the Middle East.

"I think all the Arab and Muslim countries should know that if they would like to help the Palestinians they should have good contacts with both sides," he told reporters Wednesday. "Otherwise, it will be impossible for them to help the Palestinians."

Israel currently has full-fledged diplomatic relations with just four Muslim states — Egypt, Jordan, Turkey and Mauritania.

Pakistan set the warming of the Muslim world in motion with a Sept. 1 meeting between its foreign minister, Khursheed Kasuri, and Shalom in Turkey.

Musharraf, who has praised Sharon's courage in leaving Gaza, told reporters on Thursday that the pullout led to a reciprocal gesture from Pakistan because "we thought this was a time when we needed to show our own professionalism.

"Almost everyone has recognized that Israel is there now to stay," he said, quickly adding, "but then the Palestinian state has to be created."

And that's where the limits to the diplomatic rewards come in.

Muslim nations expect major strides from Israel on the peacemaking front — if not the establishment of a Palestinian state — before committing to warmer ties.

Arabs have proposed a peace plan calling for a full Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which would all be part of an independent Palestinian state. They also demand Israel give up the Golan Heights, which it captured from Syria. In return, Arab states have said they will offer Israel normal relations and peace.

But the Israelis, mindful of security needs and established Jewish settlements, have no plans to withdraw from all of the West Bank. And they have rejected Palestinian demands to share Jerusalem.

Palestinians see the eastern sector of the city as a capital of a future state. The competing claims have made Jerusalem one of the most contentious issues in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.

Azerbaijan's foreign minister welcomed contacts between Israel and Muslim nations following the Gaza pullout.

"Toleration and dialogue are very important for relations between Islamic nations and the state of Israel. It is a positive process," Elmar Mammadyarov told The Associated Press on Thursday in New York. Israel has an embassy in Azerbaijan, a predominantly Muslim ex-Soviet republic.