UNITED NATIONS — A budding Saudi-Israeli dispute is dampening some expectations that a Saudi initiative will become a diplomatic opening to restarting negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs.

With Arab states attempting to revive a 2002 proposal known as the Saudi initiative, Israel is calling on them to first recognize the Jewish state, as a steppingstone toward regional peace.

Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni yesterday reiterated her objections to “problematic” provisions in the Saudi plan, following complaints by the Saudi foreign minister, Prince Saud al-Faisal, on Tuesday that rather than accepting the plan in full, Israel has piled up obstacles to it.

“I don’t want to quibble, but as far as I understand, peace initiatives in a dispute like this cannot be a yes-or-no proposition,” Ms. Livni told The New York Sun.

Saudi Arabia originally came up with the initiative, also known as the “Arab plan,” in an effort to solve the Arab-Israeli dispute diplomatically. The plan proposes that Israel withdraw to pre-1967 armistice lines in exchange for recognition by Arab states.

Earlier, both Ms. Livni and Prime Minister Olmert spoke publicly of “positive” elements in the Saudi plan, which is expected to be reintroduced at an Arab summit next week and endorsed as a way to encourage moderates.

But yesterday, Ms. Livni came up with a new element. “I wish the Arab and Muslim leaders, those states that don’t have diplomatic relations with Israel, will normalize their relations with Israel without waiting to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict,” she said on the Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya satellite television network.

Such a move, she said, would also serve as “a message to the moderate Palestinians: If you normalize your relations with Israel, the meaning is that this can change the situation on the ground.”

On Tuesday, Prince Saud urged Israel to accept the Saudi initiative in its entirety. “We only hear of conditions from Israel about everything, but no acceptance,” he said at a press conference in Riyadh, where he appeared alongside the foreign minister of the European Union, Javier Solana. “You cannot have negotiations like that. You accept the proposals, then you talk about this? This seems a ludicrous way of doing business.”

Speaking on behalf of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the United Arab Emirates, King Abdullah of Jordan said in a statement yesterday that he expects the Saudi initiative to be adopted by consensus during an Arab League summit in Riyadh next week.

“Arab states should unify their positions and especially as regards giving new impetus to the Arab peace initiative,” the king said.

In addition to the Arab states, Washington is reportedly interested in promoting the Saudi initiative as a “diplomatic horizon” for the region. Ms. Livni also discussed the initiative yesterday at a meeting at the United Nations with Secretary-General Ban, who is planning to attend the March 28–29 Arab League summit in Riyadh, as well as making stops in Jerusalem and Ramallah.

The Arab League originally endorsed the Saudi initiative in Beirut in March 2002.

A day later, however, 29 Israelis were killed by a suicide bomber as they attended a Seder dinner at a hotel in Netanya. Israel then launched an extended military operation in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Beirut agreement added several conditions to the original, sketchier Saudi initiative that were unacceptable to Israel, including the return of all descendants of Arabs who fled their homes in 1948 to Israel — effectively ending the idea of a Jewish state — and the rigid exclusion of any talk of corrections to the 1967 “blue line,” as the armistice border is known.

“At the end of the day, this dispute will end with a negotiation between the parties,” Ms. Livni told the Sun.

“The positive part of the Saudi initiative is the will to normalize relations and to promote the end of the dispute, which is also our interest,” she added. “The problematic part is the insertion of the refugee question in a manner that does not correspond to the vision of two states.”
Separately, a report from a U.N. investigator, Serge Brammertz, who is conducting a probe into the assassination of a former prime minister of Lebanon, Rafik Hariri, will be distributed today to members of the U.N. Security Council.

According to diplomats involved in negotiations on the report, Mr. Brammertz is expected to draw a distinction between Syria’s obligation to cooperate with U.N. investigators and the obligation of other countries that are involved.