CAIRO (AFP) – The Arab League has called on the United Nations Security Council to find a new mechanism to relaunch the Middle East peace process, at the opening of a meeting of foreign ministers in Cairo.

Bahraini Foreign Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Ahmed al-Khalifa said the League would call on the Security Council “to review the peace process… and to find a new and effective mechanism to activate it, based on Security Council decisions and the Arab peace initiative.”

The 2002 Arab initiative proposed a full normalization of relations with Israel in the exchange for the return of all land occupied by the Jewish state in 1967.

The UAE Minister of State for foreign affairs and president of the last session Mohammed Hussain al-Shaali also called for a timeframe for the relaunch of the peace process.

“We call on the Security Council to relaunch the peace process… and to define a precise and effective mechanism in order to quickly revive the negotiations and to define a time frame and to secure international guarantees (for the process),” he told attendants at the opening session before heading for the closed meetings.

An Arab diplomat attending the talks told AFP that the League’s peace committee had agreed on a unanimous position which it would put to the Security Council, without giving further details.