President Mahmoud Abbas urged regional leaders Thursday to support the Arab peace initiative, adopted in Beirut in 2002, to reach a comprehensive peace between Israel and Palestine.

In an address to an Arab League summit in Baghdad, Abbas stressed the importance of the initiative which has international support, although Israeli leaders have expressed hesitancy.

In remarks reported by Wafa, the government news agency in Ramallah, Abbas said Arab leaders should reactivate the initiative on "both political and media levels" in the region and form a committee to implement it.

He called for supporting East Jerusalem, and urged Arab leaders to uphold a previous commitment to grant $500 million in support. He called on Muslims and Christians around the world to visit the holy city.

“We have absolute faith that the issue of Jerusalem remains a center point of the joint Arab work and relations,” Abbas was quoted as saying. He praised Morocco’s work on this issue in particular.

(Ma’an News)