JORDAN: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that he is ready to discuss peace initiative with Arab leaders

Record ID: 277223

  • Title: JORDAN: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says that he is ready to discuss peace initiative with Arab leaders
  • Date: 16th May 2007
  • Summary: SOUNDBITE (English) EHUD OLMERT, ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER, SAYING: "I invite these 22 leaders of the Arab nations that are ready to make that kind of peace with Israel, to come to wherever they want to sit down with us and start to talk and to present their ideas. But if it is difficult and they are ready to invite me to any place where the 22 can gather together, I am ready
  • Embargoed: 31st May 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Jordan
  • Country: Jordan
  • Reuters ID: LVAAZWTK3MZVQAGR9CGXRB1DOCAL
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert tells Nobel Prize winners at a conference in Jordan that Israel is ready for talks with Arab states on the basis of an Arab League peace initiative.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Tuesday (May 15) he was ready to sit with Arab leaders to discuss an Arab peace initiative aimed at breaking the deadlock in peace talks between the Jewish state and the Palestinians.
    Olmert was speaking at a conference in Petra, Jordan -- hosted by Jordan's King Abdullah -- which brought together Nobel Prize winners and regional business and political leaders.
    Olmert told delegates: "If they are ready to invite me to any place where the 22 (Arab leaders) can gather together I am ready to come. So we set no obstacles. You will not hear from me any 'No'. If someone expects to hear any Israeli 'No' he will be disappointed. We say 'Yes'. We say 'Yes' to every serious and genuine effort to sit down and talk."
    Asked by Israeli Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel what worried him most, Olmert replied: "I'm worried about the safety of our children. I'm worried about the pains of Palestinian children that we may cause as a result of these conflicts. I don't want to shoot at them and I don't want them to shoot at me. I know that they pay a terrible human price for this conflict.
    "And I want everyone to know, I want every Palestinian and I want every Arab to know, we are not indifferent to the suffering of the other side."
    Olmert was scheduled to meet King Abdullah later on Tuesday in the port of Aqaba for talks on the Arab-Israeli conflict.
    Jordan and Egypt, which both have relations with Israel, have been charged by the Arab league with advancing the Arab peace initiative through working groups with officials from Olmert's government.
    Opening the conference, King Abdullah held out hope for a brighter future for the region's young people.
    "A new generation in the Middle East can move into a future of hope. It is not a distant dream. Conflict can be a chapter in the history books. Students can leave school ready and excited about the future. Tomorrows jobs can be waiting for them. Palestinians, Israelis, Jordanians and others can work together to end poverty, conserve resources, protect children," he said.

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