Report: Arabs to drop 'right of return'

LONDON, May 6 (UPI) -- Moderate Arab nations are making changes in their 7-year-old Mideast peace initiative at the urging of U.S. President Barack Obama, diplomatic sources say.

The pan-Arab newspaper al-Quds al-Arabi, which is based in London, quoted unnamed sources saying the changes, meant to make the peace plan more palatable to Israel, included dropping the "right of return" of Palestinian Arabs to Israel proper, a previous demand that was opposed across Israel's political spectrum, the Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported Wednesday.

Instead, the peace plan modifications reportedly envision resettling Palestinian refugees in other Arab countries and in a new Palestinian state following a land swap. Al-Quds al-Arabi reported that another change would be the establishment of a concrete timetable for normalization of relations between Israel and the Arab world.

Jordan's King Abdullah has agreed with Obama to broker the changes and has met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Syrian Foreign Minister Minister Walid Muallem on the developments, Ynetnews.com reported.

Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will present the changes to Obama in a meeting in Washington this month, the London newspaper reported.