Jerusalem/Ramallah - Israeli Premier Ehud Olmert and
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held talks for about two hours
Sunday evening in Jerusalem in their third meeting since December 24.
The first part of the meeting was attended by the leaders as well
as their delegations, before the two continued discussions in
private. Olmert and Abbas agreed to continue to meet regularly.
Prior to the meeting, aides said the talks were simply aimed at
keeping open their communication channels.
An Israeli government official said the meeting was 'positive and
constructive,' while senior Fatah member Mohammed Dahlan, who
participated in the session, said it was 'difficult and open.'
After the meeting, Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erekat said
in a news conference in Ramallah that it was 'frank, in depth and
positive.' He noted that several difficulties and controversial
points were raised.
During the meeting, Olmert demanded that Abbas work to relase
captured Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit being held by militant groups
in Gaza, and Abbas replied that Shalit would be released soon, before
the formation of a new Palestinian unity government, according to an
Israeli official.
The Palestinian side also raised the matter of Palestinian
prisoners, including several lawmakers, in Israeli jails.
Abu Mujahed, spokesman for the Popular Resistance Committees, one
of the groups involved in the June 25 cross-border raid in which
Shalit was captured, said Sunday night that the soldier will not be
released until the group's demands have been met, including the
release of prisoners.
Olmert told Abbas that the Karni Crossing, the main commercial
crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip, will have longer
operating hours and will work at maximum capacity.
He told Abbas that the Israeli government would not recognize a
Palestinian Authority whose members do not accept the three
conditions of the Mideast Quartet - the United States, European
Union, Russia and the United Nations - for renouncing violence,
recognizing Israel and respecting previous agreements.
Hamas, which will have the largest number of ministers in the
unity government, has refused these demands.
Negotiations on the national unity government between the ruling
Hamas movement and Abbas' Fatah faction are in an advanced stage, and
the new cabinet is expected to be announced in the coming days.
In the meeting, Abbas raised the matter of the 2002 Saudi-led Arab
League peace proposal as a basis for negotiation. Earlier Sunday,
Olmert said that Israel does not entirely reject the proposal, which
calls for Arab recognition of the Jewish state in return of
withdrawal from territories occupied in the 1967 war.
'We have said more than once that the Saudi initiative is a matter
which we would be ready to treat seriously, and our position has not
changed,' Olmert told his ministers at the start of the weekly
cabinet meeting in Jerusalem.
He said that Israel hoped the plan's 'positive elements' would be
emphasized at a meeting of Arab heads of state in Riyadh, something
that could 'improve the chances of negotiations between us and the
Palestinian Authority.'
The Saudi plan was first proposed in 2002 and adopted later that
year at an Arab League summit in Beirut. Arab leaders have stressed
that the plan will not be altered, despite Israel's opposition to a
clause calling for Palestinian refugees and their descendents to be
allowed to return to the homes they fled or were evicted from in what
is now Israel.
Israel fears that an influx of Palestinian refugees into its
borders would change the demographic balance between Jews and Muslims
and lead eventually to Israel being replaced by a bi-national state
or one with a Muslim majority.
© 2007 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur 
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