WEST BANK: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas

Record ID: 561740

  • Title: WEST BANK: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert meets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
  • Date: 7th August 2007
  • Summary: BN10) VERED JERICHO, WEST BANK (AUGUST 6, 2007) (REUTERS) WIDE OF JERICHO HOTEL WHERE ISRAELI PRIME MINISTER EHUD OLMERT AND PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS ARE MEETING, AS SEEN FROM NEARBY JEWISH SETTLEMENT
  • Embargoed: 22nd August 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: International Relations
  • Reuters ID: LVAA7WS8T3JI7AWUU41Z8XOUNYW4
  • Story Text: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank on Monday (August 6), opening talks on broad "principles" for a Palestinian state ahead of a conference later in the year.
    After months of resistance, Olmert agreed to expand the scope of discussions with Abbas to include "fundamental issues" that are key to creating a state and ending the conflict.
    But it is unclear whether Olmert, whose popularity plummeted after last year's inconclusive war in Lebanon, can make major concessions -- particularly to uproot Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
    It is also uncertain how Abbas can deliver on any deal with Hamas Islamists, whose charter calls for Israel's destruction, in control of Gaza.
    Olmert's office declined to spell out which key issues would be on the agenda. But Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said they were three so-called final-status issues of common borders and the status of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees.
    "They both discussed the most fundamental issues that are the basis for the creation of a Palestinian state and they looked into the expeditious fashion of these negotiations in order to achieve their goal and establishing a Palestinian state next to the state of Israel," he said after the meeting.
    Under heavy security, Olmert and Abbas met at a resort hotel in Jericho, less than a kilometre (half-mile) from the last Israeli checkpoint at the entrance to the West Bank city.
    Olmert was the first Israeli prime minister to visit a Palestinian city in over six years.
    Israeli officials said the goal was to reach agreement on a set of common principles on borders, refugees and other key issues without filling in the most divisive details, such as which Jewish settlements would have to be uprooted.
    If Olmert and Abbas agree on "principles", they will be presented to a U.S.-sponsored conference expected to be held in November, Israeli and Western officials said.
    "What I think is incumbent upon us today is to work energetically with the Palestinian government towards two state solution: Israel and Palestine living side by side in peace. There are very tangible issues on the table, we are working on those issues, on confidence building measures, on issues designed to speed up the momentum. We want this process to work,"
    said Israeli foreign ministry spokesperson Mark Regev.
    Israeli officials said the proposed agreement on principles would broadly call for Israel to withdraw from about 90 percent of Palestinian territory.
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