Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said in remarks carried by the Israeli media on Wednesday that the US-backed Saudi peace initiative is a death trap for the Jewish state.

Introduced in 2001, the Saudi initiative envisions a comprehensive peace deal between Israel and the whole of the Arab Middle East, based on a full Israeli withdrawal to its pre-1967 borders.

The plan is vague, but generally defers to the Palestinians on the demand that so-called Arab "refugees" be allowed to flood the Jewish state.

Earlier this week, US President Barack Obama stated that he sees the Saudi initiative as the basis for making peace between Israel and its neighbors, and indicated that it will be part of his government's foreign policy.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has also come out in favor of launching regional negotiations based on the Saudi plan, though with some reservations. Barak and Lieberman have engaged in a heated debate over the issue, thus holding up the publication of an official peace process policy by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.