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Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Flash90)
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| By Israel Insider staff October 7, 2007 |
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During today's cabinet meeting, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert assured the attendees that he and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas have not reached concrete agreements ahead of the upcoming Mideast peace summit.
"There were no agreements or understandings between me and Abu Mazen [Abbas]," Haaretz quoted Olmert as saying. Olmert also said that the two men "surveyed the problems and the central issues that are the basis for negotiations that will lead to two states for two peoples," during their meeting last week.
Recent media reports of supposed proposals by Olmert to the PA, including dividing Jerusalem and ceding nearly 100 percent of Judea and Samaria, have caused uproar among the prime minister's coalition partners.
The prime minister added that "any solution that will be reached will be dependent on the implementation of the road map principles with an emphasis on the order of action it calls for, which is of special importance."
Olmert emphasized the timeline of the road map, which stipulates that the Palestinian Authority must combat terrorism and strengthen institutions in the first stage of negotiations. The remark was likely an attempt to address the reluctance of numerous MKs to relinquish the West Bank amid reports of Hamas' strength in the region.
Meanwhile, the PA is demanding more than just vague agreements, and has threatened to cancel its attendance if no real progress is made ahead of the summit.
"If the document is drafted with ambiguities, it is not necessary. Every discussion must include the Gaza Strip and Jerusalem," Ahmed Qureia, the former Palestinian prime minister who is now leading negotiations said, referring to the future status of Gaza and the Jerusalem.
Several Arab countries, among them Saudi Arabia, have warned that if the Israelis and Palestinians do not produce concrete terms regarding borders, Jerusalem and refugees, then they will not attend the conference. The countries are also demanding that Israel agree to withdraw entirely to the pre-1967 borders. Israel views the participation of key Arab countries' as critical to the summit's success.
Hamas is calling on Saudi Arabia and Egypt "to reconsider any decision to participate in this conference," the Jerusalem Post quoted the group's leader Ismail Haniyeh as saying in an effort to undermine efforts at negotiations.
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