- Title: EGYPT / ISRAEL: Preparations for Olmert-Abbas summit
- Date: 21st May 2006
- Summary: CLOSE UP: CAMERAMAN
- Embargoed: 5th June 2006 13:00
- Keywords:
- Topics: International Relations
- Reuters ID: LVA53NPS4Q581SVOSVXIMRRMZ24Y
- Story Text: Israel said on Sunday (May 21) it would prepare for a summit with the Palestinians after the two sides held their highest level talks since Hamas militants rose to power.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has no objections on holding a future meeting with the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, his top deputy Tzipi Livni told reporters after a meeting in Egypt with the Palestinian leader.
"It is the Israeli government policy not to punish the Palestinian people for their vote and to help the Palestinian people in any economic humanitarian way that we could help them. And this was part of the discussion between Mahmoud Abbas and us about the best way to help the situation in the Palestinian authority," Livni added after the talks held on the sidelines of a World Economic Forum in the Egyptian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
Israel authorised the release of 50 million shekels (11 million U.S. dollars) in frozen Palestinian taxes in a bid to ease a humanitarian crisis ahead of Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's maiden trip to Washington.
"I think the upon the return of the prime minister from the United States he will meet with Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas) to see what can be done seriously," Vice Premier Shimon Peres told Reuters.
"We are coming with a concrete plan that will enable the three parties Jordanians, Palestinians and us to cooperate economically while we remain separated politically," Peres added.
Olmert is expected to ask President George W. Bush's support for setting Israel's border in parts of the occupied West Bank.
Palestinians are opposed to unilateralism, the platform of the Kadima party which is head by Olmert and is leading the Israeli government, Abbas and his delegation insisted.
While both Israel and the United States are working to isolate the Hamas Islamists controlling the Palestinian government, the Jewish state has been under pressure to help avert the collapse of the Palestinian Authority.
Malaysia pledged $16 million on Sunday in humanitarian aid and budget support to the Palestinian Authority to compensate for the loss of U.S. and European assistance.
But in practice the Malaysian pledge, like previous contributions from Arab states, will not reach the Palestinians until the United States lifts the threat of sanctions against banks which transfer the funds to the West Bank or Gaza.
Israel had frozen contacts with the Palestinian government after Hamas, a group whose charter calls for the Jewish state's destruction, scored an upset win in a January election, but has lately launched back-channel talks with more moderate officials.
Officials travelling with Livni said Sunday's talks were mainly an effort to head off a humanitarian crisis in Palestinian territories hit by a world-led economic boycott of Hamas, and not a bid to renew peace talks.
Israel backed by the U.S. and European Union has said conditioned any negotiations on Hamas recognising Israel, past peace deals and renouncing violence. Livni stuck to these conditions, one Israeli source said.
President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters during a news conference that he will be meeting the Israeli deputies, Livni and Peres, and was looking forward to meeting with Livni.
"Regarding the dialogue with the Israelis they know that it is the PLO and the presidency that negotiates and therefore they sat with us and there might be other discussions and there might be negotiations regarding the final status agreements and all the terms present in the roadmap," Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told reporters.
Abbas also stressed that even if there are tensions and clashes a civil war is not an option and a redline that no Palestinian will cross.
"This is a wish that we will not allow for it to happen, to anyone who wants the Palestinians to go to civil war we will not allow this to happen. The civil war is a red line, no one would dare cross it who ever they are. Fighting and clashes happen but it is always controlled immediately because the civil war is forbidden," Abbas told reporters.
Olmert had been widely expected to meet with Abbas after the Israeli leader's talks this week in Washington with U.S. President George W. Bush, but Livni's comments were the firmest indication yet that such a meeting would take place.
Officials travelling with Livni said Sunday's talks were mainly an effort to head off a humanitarian crisis in Palestinian territories hit by a world led economic boycott of Hamas, and not a bid to renew peace talks.
Israeli Defence Minister Amir Peretz on Sunday (May 21) suggested that talks with Abbas may be the only way to avoid unilateral steps.
"I see in the need to separate between the policy towards Abu Mazen (Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas) and the policy towards the Hamas government one of the ways, maybe the only way, which enables us to create a parallel political move alongside the unilateral steps, if required," Peretz told reporters ahead of his meeting with United States Security Coordinator General Keith Dayton in Tel Aviv. END - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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