Cairo, Egypt ? Syrian support for a Saudi peace overture to Israel brings the Arab world closer than it has ever been to recognizing Israel’s right to exist, but the process is fraught with pitfalls.

The chance for a new peace initiative comes just three weeks from now when the Arab League convenes in Beirut for its annual summit and it could vanish just as quickly if Israel carries out its threat to prevent Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat from attending.

Syrian President Bashar Assad, whose father and predecessor once led the vanguard of hard-line opposition to Israel, has reservations but “expressed satisfaction” with the proposal aired last month by Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Abdullah, Syria’s state-run media said Wednesday.

It was the clearest signal yet, coming amid Assad’s flurry of visits with other Arab leaders, that Syria would go along with the Saudi proposal if it is presented at the March 27-28 summit.

The Saudi proposal has also found support from the United States and from some Israeli officials. Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres and Defense Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, both of the center-left Labor Party, have said it has positive elements that deserve exploration.

But despite offering the Israelis wider acceptance by the Arabs and an alternative to dealing solely with Arafat on Palestinian issues, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other hard-liners appear to think it offers insufficient guarantees for Israel’s security.

Abdullah’s plan, as sketched out so far, is a fairly simple idea that goes straight to the core issue land for peace but it leaves a lot of touchy details to be addressed later.

The proposal that Abdullah outlined in a February interview with The New York Times calls for Israel’s withdrawal from the territories captured in the 1967 Mideast war which would include Syria’s Golan Heights in exchange for neighborly relations with the Arab world.

Saudi officials have said the details, including the borders of Israel and a Palestinian state and the fate of Palestinian refugees, would be left to Israeli, Palestinian, Syrian and Lebanese negotiators.

But Abdullah’s proposal was, as Syrian political analyst Imad Shoueibi told The Associated Press on Wednesday, “the first time that the Arabs say as a group, ‘We are ready for peace.'”

Hesham Youssef, spokesman for Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa, said Wednesday in Cairo that Syrian support for the Saudi plan was “important” since Syria is “a main part of the conflict.”

Youssef wouldn’t speculate on the summit’s outcome, but he said “the general attitude is more toward supporting” the Saudi plan.

Arafat’s attendance is crucial.

The Palestinians say Abdullah has assured them he won’t even submit his proposal for discussion if Arafat doesn’t show up in Beirut.

Israeli troops have kept Arafat has been pinned down for the past three months at his offices in the West Bank town of Ramallah.