Egypt's Sisi urges Israel to consider Arab peace initiative

Egypt's President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi acknowledges applause as he takes the stage before his address to the 69th United Nations General Assembly at U.N. headquarters in New York, September 24, 2014. REUTERS/Mike Segar/Files

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi urged Israel on Sunday to consider launching new peace efforts based on an Arab initiative first presented in 2002 and rejected by the Jewish state. Sisi was opening a conference in Cairo on rebuilding Gaza after a 50-day war between the Hamas militant movement and Israel. "We should turn this moment into a real starting point to achieve a peace that secures stability and flourishing and renders the dream of coexistence a reality, and this is the vision of the Arab peace initiative," he said. The plan, put forward by Saudi Arabia at an Arab League summit in Beirut in 2002, offered full recognition of Israel but only if it gave up all land seized in the 1967 Middle East war and agreed to a "just solution" for Palestinian refugees. (Reporting by Omar Fahmy; Writing by Michael Georgy, editing by John Stonestreet)