The Israeli prime minister, Ehud Olmert, met Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas today for US-backed peace talks, in what could be their last meeting before Mr Olmert steps down over a graft scandal. "The objective remains to press ahead with the process begun at the Annapolis conference in the United States last November and to try to conclude a historic Israeli-Palestinian agreement," Mr Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said.
The pair were joined by their negotiators, Israeli foreign minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian diplomat Ahmed Qorei, who have met regularly since the peace process was formally relaunched under US auspices nine months ago. The talks have made little visible progress since then and were dealt a blow in July when Mr Olmert announced he would resign following a party vote on Sept 17 in order to battle corruption allegations.
Mr Regev insisted Mr Olmert's early departure from office "would not interfere with the discussions." Mr Livni is a front-runner to succeed Mr Olmert at the head of their centrist Kadima party, as is transport minister Shaul Mofaz, a hawkish former general. Israeli public radio reported that Mr Olmert is pressing for a "framework agreement" to be presented to US President George W Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice next month in Washington.
The talks were launched with the goal of reaching a comprehensive solution to the decades-old conflict by the time Mr Bush leaves office in January 2009, but the two sides remain sharply divided on the core issues of the conflict. These include the final borders of a Palestinian state, the future status of Jerusalem, the fate of 4.6 million UN-registered Palestinian refugees, and the future of Jewish settlements in the Israeli-occupied territories.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper reported that Mr Olmert has presented Mr Abbas with a proposal that would layout framework principles on core issues and create a five-year international mechanism for reaching an agreement on Jerusalem. Palestinians have demanded mostly Arab east Jerusalem - seized and annexed by Israel in the 1967 Six Day war in a move not recognised internationally - as the capital of their future state.
Israel considers the entire city its "eternal, undivided" capital. According to Haaretz, Mr Olmert's proposal would have Israelis and Palestinians negotiate a solution for Jerusalem with input from the United States, the European Union, the United Nations, Russia, and perhaps Egypt and Jordan. Officials close to Mr Abbas neither confirmed nor denied the Haaretz report, but the Palestinians have always insisted they will not accept a partial agreement that does not resolve all the core issues.
"President Abbas and the Palestinian leadership are determined to arrive at a complete agreement including all the issues, but this depends on how serious the Israeli side is," Nimr Hamad, an adviser to Mr Abbas, said. Members of Mr Olmert's government, including the deputy prime minister and head of the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, slammed the report. "This government has no public legitimacy, and certainly no legal legitimacy to sign any shelf accord or reach any understanding on Jerusalem," Eli Yishai said during today's weekly cabinet meeting.
The deputy premier, a crucial coalition ally, has repeatedly threatened to pull out of Mr Olmert's government if the subject of Jerusalem is raised in the talks. Mr Livni, meanwhile, did not comment on the report but warned against a hasty agreement. "Time consideration should not force us to make the grave mistakes of trying to bridge gaps in a way that will lead to a breakdown or give up critical issues for Israel only to reach some results," an aide quoted Mr Livni as saying during the cabinet meeting.
* AFP
