The past 20 years of the Middle East peace process between Israel and the Palestinians has been a "waste of time", Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said Saturday in Ramallah.
His visit, with that of Egyptian Foreign Minister Muhammed Kamel Amr, came the day after Israel's Foreign Minisiter, Avigdor Lieberman, demanded the resignation of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas before any talks could resume.
Speaking to reporters following a meeting with Abbas in Ramallah, Arab League Secretary General Elaraby said the past 20 years of peace talks had been a “a waste of time."
And he called for a new approach to the peace process, since Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have so far produced no results.
"Our next move in agreement with the Palestinians and with full support from the Arab countries and the European Union is to change the current formula (for the peace process)," he said. “We cannot continue with the methods of the last 20 years. It was a waste of time," he said.
Elaraby said the Middle East conflict should be taken back to the United Nations Security Council after consulting with all parties, including the United States, "to discuss and agree on a new approach to this issue with a goal to end the conflict and not just to manage it."
The Arab officials’ visit was originally planned to include a large number of Arab foreign ministers as a show of support for Abbas following the Palestinians' successful bid to become a non-member observer state in the United Nations.
However, an Arabic daily in London reported that the US administration had sabotaged the visit, in order to pressure Abbas to return to unconditional negotiations with Israel.
Abbas demands that Israel stop all settlement activities in the occupied territories, including East Jerusalem, in order to return to the negotiating table. Israel says it will only negotiate if there are no preconditions.
Elaraby said other Arab officials expressed a desire to visit Ramallah but that a date will be later set for a visit.
Abbas, Elaraby and Amr also discussed the Palestinian Authority's financial crisis, which has so far prevented it from paying its 180,000 public employees their November salary, and Arab financial support.
Arab countries have promised to provide Abbas with a monthly 100 million US dollar financial safety net to offset a decision by Israel to freeze, as a punitive measure for the UN bid, an equal amount in tax money it collects on behalf of the Palestinian Authority.
However, Elaraby admitted that the Arabs had so not kept their promise with none of the monies pledged money actually arriving in Ramallah.
"The Palestinian Authority cannot continue to function with this financial situation," said Elaraby. "Unfortunately, the 100 million US dollars Arab safety net has not yet materialized," he added, explaining that the Arab League will continue to work toward providing this money to the Palestinians.
The Egyptian foreign minister invited Abbas to visit Egypt in the coming days in order to re-launch reconciliation talks between Abbas' Fatah party and its rival, the Islamist Hamas movement. The talks have have hit a stalemate in recent weeks.
The Arab officials later met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad who showed them from a hilltop in Ramallah a large area of the West Bank, referred to as Area C, which Israel controls and prevents the Palestinians from developing.