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Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, and Jordan's King Abdullah after a breakfast hosted by the King. (AP)
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| By Associated Press June 22, 2006 |
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas shook hands, embraced and kissed each other at a breakfast meeting in Jordan on Thursday meant to help melt the increasingly icy relations between Israelis and Palestinians following Hamas militants' rise to power.
The breakfast in the ancient Jordanian town of Petra, sponsored by Jordan's King Abdullah ll, appeared to produce the desired effect: promises on both sides of a more substantive meeting to come. It also brought a rare apology from Olmert for Israeli airstrikes that killed 13 Palestinian civilians in recent days.
"It is against our policy and I am very, very sorry," he said.
But Olmert cautioned that serious negotiations were unlikely until the Hamas-led Palestinian government recognized Israel.
"I think that Abu Mazen is a genuine person and he comes here with good intentions," Olmert said after meeting Abbas, using the Palestinian leader's nickname.
"But to the best of my knowledge, he is not the prime minister of the Palestinian Authority," Olmert said. Abbas, a moderate elected separately last year, is in an intense power struggle with Hamas politicians, including Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh.
Olmert said the Palestinian government was "controlled by a terrorist group" and "boycotted by the entire world."
The already tense relations between Israelis and Palestinians worsened in recent days following a series of Israeli airstrikes that targeted militants but ended up killing 13 civilians. Another eight Palestinian beachgoers were killed at a June 9 beach explosion that Palestinians blamed on Israel but which Israel denied responsibility for.
After an Israeli airstrike killed two civilians on Wednesday, Abbas issued a strongly worded statement accusing Israel of targeting the innocent. But on Thursday he expressed a desire to meet Olmert again, and one of his top aides said a summit could occur within two weeks.
"There is the idea to prepare for another meeting in the future... We will start preparing for it next week," he said.
"Supposedly it would be in the coming two weeks," said Nabil Abu Rdeneh, a top aide to Abbas. He said the Palestinian president was awaiting word from Israel about when and where to schedule the summit.
"From Olmert's first day in office, we informed them that we are ready for negotiations and to set at the table, and we are waiting for the Israelis," Abu Rdeneh said.
Thursday marked the first meeting between top Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a year's time, though Olmert and Abbas both said they had been in regular contact by telephone.
They shook hands, embraced and kissed each other on the cheek. Asked about his handshake with Olmert, Abbas said, "It was very warm, very warm."
Leaving the meeting, Olmert nodded to reporters when asked if he would meet Abbas again.
The breakfast took place in Petra, a 2,000-year-old city carved into Jordan's rose-red mountains. Olmert, Abbas and Abdullah sat at a round breakfast table with the Dalai Lama, a deputy Thai prime minister and Elie Weisel, a Holocaust survivor and the 1986 Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Before the meeting, Israeli Vice Premier Shimon Peres said Israel was not ready for "serious" talks until an internal dialogue among Palestinian factions was resolved.
"To negotiate completely and seriously, we have to see what happens on the Palestinian side, and the Palestinian side is, until now, inconclusive. So we cannot enter serious negotiations yet," he said.
Asked whether he considered the dialogue positive, Peres said: "Not if Hamas wins."
Abbas has been seeking to persuade Hamas to accept a document implicitly recognizing Israel as way out of a crippling world aid boycott. If Hamas continues to reject the document, prepared by a group of prominent Palestinian prisoners jailed in Israel, Abbas plans to bring the idea to the voters in a July 26 referendum.
Abbas' Fatah movement and the Islamic militant group Hamas have clashed repeatedly since Hamas won parliamentary elections in January.
A Hamas lawmaker and spokesman, Mushir Al Masri, said Thursday that his group was not optimistic about future negotiations between Olmert and Abbas
"Experience has proven that such meetings can't bring anything to our people," he said. "Our people don't trust these meetings," he added.
Peres described Olmert and Abbas' contact Thursday as "fruitful and positive."
"Every meeting has its importance, but these aren't negotiations," he said, adding that "mountains don't meet, but people do."
Abu Rdeneh said that "talking with Mr. Olmert is a good thing to do, but we are looking forward to the formal meeting that will take place in a couple of weeks."
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