Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israel's Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert will meet on Monday to talk on resuming political
negotiations, a top Palestinian official said on Sunday.
The only point on the summit agenda was "the political
negotiations," while the security, financial and foreign relations
left to be handled by joint ministerial committees, Abbas'
confident and chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told
reporters in Ramallah.
The Palestinian Authority (PA) hoped and requested the meeting
to be held in West Bank city of Jericho, said Erekat.
It will be the first time for a summit between Israeli and
Palestinian leaders to be held on the Palestinian-controlled
territory, he said. All previous meetings took place abroad or in
the Israeli-controlled Jerusalem.
"Preparations are underway ... we asked that the conference
takes place in Jericho but the time and place would be finally
confirmed in the coming hours," said Erekat.
However, Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip since mid-June,
blasted the meetings between Abbas and Olmert as serving "the
Israeli occupation at the end."
"The occupation made it clear that it is not ready to go in
final talks and will continue killings and aggression," said Hamas
spokesman in Gaza Sami Abu Zuhri.
Abu Zuhri also slammed Abbas for refusing to "sit with his
people," referring to Abbas' refusal to talk with Hamas unless it
makes an apology for capturing the Palestinian Authority compounds
in Gaza.
"This is very shameful; he (Abbas) should meet his people
instead of keeping up meetings with Olmert," Abu Zuhri said.
The upcoming Abbas-Olmert summit came days after a short
regional tour by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who used
her visit to rally support for an American proposal to hold an
international peace conference to resume the Middle East peace
process.
On July 16, US President George W. Bush proposed to hold an
international conference later this year that will group Israel,
the Palestinians and some neighboring Arab states to help resume
the stalled Middle East peace talks.
(Xinhua News Agency August 6, 2007)
