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PM Ehud Olmert on Sunday said that efforts to schedule a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have broken down (AP)
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| By Associated Press October 15, 2006 |
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Olmert says efforts to meet with Abbas have broken down
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said preparations for his first working meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have broken down, an official said, in a new setback for attempts to restart Mideast peace efforts.
The official quoted Olmert as saying Abbas is demanding the release of Palestinian prisoners as a condition for holding the meeting. Olmert said there would be no prisoner release until Hamas-linked militants in the Gaza Strip release an Israeli soldier, Cpl. Gilad Shalit, captured in June.
"We offered to meet with Abu Mazen, but apparently he is not interested," Olmert was quoted as telling a meeting of lawmakers from his Kadima party. "He is conditioning a meeting on the release of prisoners and we will not release any prisoners until Gilad Shalit is released." Abbas is also known as Abu Mazen.
The official, who attended the meeting, spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to discuss the matter on the record.
Olmert announced late last month that he soon hoped to hold a long-delayed meeting with Abbas, a political moderate locked in a power struggle with Hamas. But the preparations have remained bogged down over the prisoner issue.
Abbas has said he wants assurances the meeting will deal with more than the fate of Shalit, though Palestinian officials say he has not insisted on a prisoner release.
Relations between Israel and the Palestinians have deteriorated since the radical Islamic group Hamas won Palestinian parliamentary elections in January.
Olmert and Abbas have met only once, at a brief informal breakfast in Jordan, since the Israeli leader was elected in March. They were planning on holding a more substantive meeting when Shalit was captured, putting all peace efforts on hold.
Israel has been carrying out a widespread offensive in Gaza since Shalit was captured. Israeli forces have killed 21 Palestinians in fighting since Thursday. Most of the dead were militants, but two minors, ages 10 and 14, and a 29-year-old woman also were killed.
Abbas has been trying to pressure Hamas to moderate its views, but efforts to form a national unity government -- which could lead to new peace talks -- have stalled. The militants have demanded the release of hundreds of Palestinians jailed by Israel.
Nevertheless, Olmert said he hoped a summit would lead to broader peace talks. Negotiations have been frozen for years, with both sides refusing to carry out their initial obligations under the internationally backed "road map" peace plan.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited the region last week in an effort to bolster Abbas and restart peace efforts. Olmert reportedly promised to "create a better environment" and return to peacemaking.
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