Abbas calls Olmert, calls for peace talks
(AP)
Updated: 2006-05-05 19:52
JERUSALEM -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas phoned Israeli Prime
Minister Ehud Olmert on Friday and urged him to resume peace talks quickly, now
that a centrist Israeli government has assumed power.
Olmert's aides
said a meeting with the moderate Abbas is possible, but ruled out negotiations
as long as the Hamas-led Palestinian Authority refuses to recognize Israel or
renounce violence.
With the Islamic militant Hamas refusing to budge, a
speedy resumption of talks that broke down in 2000 appears unlikely.
Olmert reiterated Thursday, after his government was approved by
parliament, that he is determined to set Israel's final borders even without
negotiations, and that this would entail the dismantling of smaller Jewish
settlements scattered across the West Bank. Olmert has said he intends to hold
on to large settlements as part of his "consolidation" plan. "Partitioning the
land is a lifeline for Zionism," he told parliament Thursday.
Olmert was
to meet with U.S. leaders in Washington later this month to try to win backing
for his West Bank plan. He has said he would not proceed without broad
international support. U.S. officials have said final borders between Israel and
a Palestinian state must be drawn in peace talks, but have not rejected Olmert's
ideas outright.
Abbas called Olmert on Friday and urged him to resume
negotiations, said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat.
"President Abbas
called Mr. Olmert, congratulated him on the formation of the new Cabinet and
offered to resume the partnership between the two sides and to resume
negotiations," said Erekat. Olmert told Abbas he would consider a meeting after
his Washington trip, Erekat said, adding that no date has been set.
Israeli Cabinet Secretary Israel Maimon said a meeting with Abbas was
possible, but that negotiations can only resume if Hamas moderates its
positions. "As long as there is terror and as long as the terms (for moderation)
are not being fulfilled, there cannot be talk about negotiations," Maimon told
Israel Radio.
Abbas, elected separately, has been wrangling with the
Hamas government over the division of powers, particularly over control of the
security forces. At the same time, he has appealed to the West to restore aid
payments to the Palestinians, frozen after the Hamas government took office in
late March, two months after its election victory.
Hamas has been unable
to pay 165,000 government employees, the backbone of the Palestinian labor
force, since assuming power. Many Palestinians are scraping by on dwindling
savings, loans and handouts.
In an attempt to avert a humanitarian
crisis, the EU Commission is considering sending aid for specific purposes, such
as health and education, directly to Abbas, thus bypassing the Hamas government,
according to an EU document obtained by The Associated Press.
The
document predicted a crisis in the Palestinian territories in the next 2-3
months, including "greatly increased unemployment and poverty levels, and
possibly the breakdown of law and order."
"In such a crisis, the
international community will have a strong imperative to intervene," the
document said. "The dilemma is how to do this with engaging the (Hamas-led)
Palestinian Authority."
EU Commission officials in Jerusalem declined
comment on the report, but said a decision on possible aid to the Palestinians
is expected later this month.
The EU proposal came a week after French
President Jacques Chirac said the World Bank should set up a fund to pay the
salaries of the Palestinian government employees.
Also Friday, Israel's
high court ruled that Israeli troops will have to remove three Jewish settler
families from a Palestinian-owned home in the West Bank city of Hebron by
Monday.
The court had initially ordered the squatters removed by Friday.
However, army officials said they feared they would not be able to complete the
task before the onset of the Jewish Sabbath at sundown Friday.
After the
court ruling, about 60 settlers scuffled with Israeli police at the home that is
to be evacuated. The settlers shouted slogans against the removal of the
squatters and slashed the tire of a police car, police said.
Israeli
media reported that the army was expected to remove the squatters in the night
from Sunday to Monday, and that some 1,000 soldiers and police were being
mobilized for the mission.
Hebron is home to about 160,000 Palestinians
and some 500 Jewish settlers living in heavily fortified enclaves in the
downtown area. The Hebron settlers are among the most ultranationalist in the
West Bank.
The forceful evacuation of the three families would be the
first test of Israel's new defense minister, Amir Peretz, leader of the moderate
Labor Party.
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