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Israeli PM Ehud Olmert ready to make painful concessions after completing plan to withdraw from parts of the West Bank. (AP)
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| By Associated Press June 11, 2006 |
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Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert says he is ready to make painful concessions after completing a plan to withdraw from parts of the West Bank and unilaterally draw Israel's borders with the Palestinians.
"I am ready to make concessions that will be painful and divisive, the specific nature of which, the accurate aspect of all this will take place during the process of negotiations," he said in an interview to be aired on Sky Television Sunday at the start of his visit to Europe.
"I'm not going to negotiate on television, but I'm ready to make these sacrifices and I spelled it out to the public opinion of my country prior to the elections and it cost me many votes, but I got a clear mandate and I'm ready to go."
Olmert, who was sworn in last month, aims to drum up international support for his plan to withdraw settlers and soldiers from large parts of the West Bank and set Israel's final border with the territory.
Europe, the United States and moderate Arab states have pressed Olmert to try negotiations with Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas before taking unilateral steps. But prospects for formal peace talks between the two sides have weakened dramatically since the militant Hamas took control of the Palestinian government in January elections.
Last year, Israel carried out a unilateral withdrawal from all of the Gaza Strip. But the partial West Bank pullout would fall short of Palestinian claims to all of the area for part of an independent state.
Olmert meets British Prime Minister Tony Blair in London on Monday and then flies to Paris for talks with President Jacques Chirac and others.
Olmert told Sky that during talks with Blair he would seek the British prime minister's help to "facilitate this process that will hopefully force the Palestinians to change their minds so that they will be ready for the negotiations as well."
Olmert has said he will meet with Abbas to explore the possibility of peace talks, but Israeli officials say it will be difficult to hold negotiations as long as Hamas remains committed to Israel's destruction.
"We want to negotiate with (Palestinian President) Abu Mazen, we will be meeting with him and I plan to see him later this month and see what I can do to help him," Olmert said.
"But if it will be agreed by the international community that conditions have not matured to allow negotiations, which is the case now, then the question is what shall we do. Wait forever? Do nothing? Keep a stalemate, freeze the situation? Or shall we try to do something that will move things forward that will help create an environment of better understanding? That's what I'm interested in doing and I don't think that we should wait too much."
"If it will be in 2007, if it will be in 2008, if it will be earlier or later, when the time will come one thing must be clear: we are not going to keep the status quo forever. We want to move, we want to change. We want to create better conditions for peace in the Middle East."
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