The Arab League summit in Beirut said on March 28 that if Israel withdrew from the occupied territories in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria, and agreed a "just solution" to the Palestinian refugee problem, the Arab states would recognize Israel and normalize relations with it. The summit reaffirmed that "a just and comprehensive peace" in the Middle East was the "strategic option" of the Arab countries and asked Israel to declare that this was its strategic option as well.

This restatement of the Arab "land for peace" position was prompted by an initiative launched in February by crown prince Abdullah Bin Abdullazziz of Saudi Arabia.

The summit called on Israel to agree to a full withdrawal from the territories it has occupied since 1967, in implementation of UN security council resolutions 242 and 338; a just solution of the Palestinian refugee problem in accordance with UN general assembly resolution 194; and the establishment of a sovereign independent Palestinian state on the occupied Palestinian territories in the West Bank and the Gaza strip, with east Jerusalem as its capital.

In return, the Arab countries would consider the Arab-Israeli conflict at an end, enter into a peace agreement with Israel, provide security for all the states of the region, and establish normal relations with Israel in the context of this comprehensive peace.

The day after the Arab League statement, Israeli tanks and bulldozers attacked Yasser Arafat's presidential compound in Ramallah. It was the first stage of what the Israeli prime minister, Ariel Sharon, says will be a "long and complicated war that knows no borders".