Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah told a European Union envoy today that he expects to unite the Arab world behind a Middle East peace initiative next month. The news comes in the wake of further killings in the region today.
"He is fully determined to move forward with his ideas that he thinks may bring peace to the region," EU foreign policy chief Mr Javier Solana said after meeting the prince.
"He is going to coordinate his ideas with the Arab countries ... and he expects at the Arab League summit they will be approved," he said, referring to a Beirut summit on March 27-28.
Earlier today, Israeli troops killed three Palestinian gunmen in a shoot-out near the Egyptian border and a Palestinian shot dead an Israeli businessman in the West Bank.
The three gunmen were killed after they crossed into Israel from Egypt, the Israeli army said. One of them had a bomb strapped to his body, Israel Radio reported.
One Israeli soldier was wounded in a gunbattle in the southern Negev desert.
Hours earlier, a Palestinian worker at a coffee factory in an industrial zone in the West Bank shot dead his Israeli manager. Israeli police said the attacker drew a pistol in the works canteen and shot the man twice in the head before fleeing.
Two armed groups linked to Palestinian leader Mr Yasser Arafat's Fatah movement claimed responsibility for the killing.
Meanwhile, a 16-year-old Israeli girl critically wounded 10 days ago in a Palestinian suicide bombing at the Jewish settlement of Karnei Shomron died from her injuries today.
The resumption of US-mediated security talks between Israeli and Palestinian officials yesterday and Price Abdullah’s offer is a positive sign the two sides were looking for ways to curb the violence, according diplomatic sources. Prince Abdullah's initiative has won wide backing, including from the United States, and diplomats say it offers light at the end of the tunnel after 17 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence. But it could be upset by any new surge of violence.
The prince's initiative restates the principle on which Arab-Israeli peace talks were launched in 1991. Collective Arab recognition of Israel has a broad appeal in the Jewish state.
Western nations in the United Nations Security Council lauded Saudi Arabia for floating the initiative, although Syria's ambassador said the peace process required political will from Israel and not further initiatives .