Olmert, Abbas tackle top divisive issues By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer

Olmert, Abbas tackle top divisive issues By ARON HELLER, Associated Press Writer
16 minutes ago



JERUSALEM - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas tackled the biggest issues dividing the two sides at their meeting on Tuesday — final borders, Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees, an Israeli official said.

ADVERTISEMENT

It was the first time the two men discussed these matters in depth, the official said.

"These core issues have to be discussed on the way to finding a diplomatic solution of two states for two peoples," an official in the prime minister's office quoted Olmert as saying. He spoke on condition of anonymity because the two leaders spoke privately.

Olmert, who has met several times with Abbas in the past few months, has been reluctant to take on these big issues, preferring to focus on general outlines. Israel's approach has riled the Palestinians, who want to go straight to the core issues of Palestinian statehood.

Heading into the meeting, Abbas warned that an international Mideast peace conference scheduled for November would be a "waste of time" if it failed to address the big three issues, which have stymied peace efforts in the past.

As he entered Olmert's Jerusalem residence for the meeting, Abbas signed the guestbook in Arabic with a wish for peace between the two peoples, the Israeli official said.

The official in Olmert's office said the two sides hoped by the end of October to outline a framework for the end of the conflict and the establishment of a Palestinian state. The three major issues will be at the heart of this document, he said.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat told reporters the two leaders did not discuss the issues in detail or prepare any documents. But he said the sides must gird themselves to act, not talk.

"We are at a stage to reach decisions," Erekat said.

He did not deny that Israelis and Palestinians were conducting backchannel talks to try to move peacemaking ahead, but said they were not official negotiations.

President Bush has called for a Mideast peace conference, expected to take place in November, to advance a final Israeli-Palestinian accord. Olmert and Abbas plan to meet three times before then, the Israeli official said.

A successful outcome of the international conference is far from assured. The violent seizure of the Gaza Strip by Islamic Hamas militants in June created dueling governments, with Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas loyalists in charge in the West Bank. Olmert, weakened by last summer's botched war against Lebanese guerrillas, might not be able to make the sweeping territorial concessions a final accord would demand.

On the other hand, prospects for peacemaking have been boosted by Abbas' expulsion of Hamas, which killed hundreds of Israelis in suicide bombings, from government. And the key players in this drama — Olmert, Abbas and Bush — all appear to be hungry for some kind of diplomatic achievement.

Olmert made it clear to Abbas in their meeting that Israel would break off all peacemaking if the Palestinian leader brought Hamas into his government, the Israeli official said.

The U.S. has been prodding Israel and the Palestinians to make progress before the November conference. Olmert's office said Tuesday's meeting was part of an attempt to reach understandings before then.

The meetings between Abbas and Olmert in recent months are an attempt to boost Abbas against Hamas. This was the first time a major development has been reported, sweeping aside official denials that the issues that have tormented peacemakers for decades were on the table.

The biggest obstacles in past peace negotiations have been what the final borders of a future Palestinian state would look like; whether Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war that accompanied Israel's creation would be allowed to return to their homes along with their millions of descendants; and whether the holy city of Jerusalem could be shared.