Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas held a "positive" meeting Thursday in Jerusalem, although there was no agreement on the issue of expanding Israeli settlements on land the Palestinians claim, officials said.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, left, and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, right, seen earlier this year, have pledged to work toward a peace agreement.
(Amos Ben Gershom/Associated Press)
"The meeting will focus on the need to halt settlements in Palestinian territory," an Abbas spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, told Agence France-Presse before the two-hour meeting.
Following the talks, an Israeli official told wire services that Israel continued to claim a right to build new residences in East Jerusalem. The Palestinians want the city to become the capital of their future state.
The face-to-face meeting between the leaders was the first since a U.S.-hosted conference in November restarted the Mideast peace negotiations. Abbas and Olmert agreed to reach a deal on a Palestinian state in 2008.
But expanding Israeli communities in Jerusalem and the West Bank have become "a deal breaker," the CBC's Nahlah Ayed reported from Jerusalem.
The Israeli government confirmed on Dec. 23 plans to build 500 new apartment units in East Jerusalem and 240 nearby in the West Bank.
The Palestinians have said the new units violate an Israeli undertaking to stop new construction — made as part of the "road map" the plan to bring peace to the region. But Israel has said the units only extend existing neighbourhoods, which are not covered by the road map.
Israel is demanding that Abbas honour the Palestinians' road map commitments by clamping down on militants in the West Bank and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.
Abbas cannot control Hamas, and the Gaza Strip is a separate territory from the West Bank, where the Fatah movement he heads is in control.
The talks Thursday come ahead of a visit to the region by U.S. President George W. Bush next month.
Bush, who helped bring the leaders together at the November meeting that restarted the talks, is expected to meet both men during his tour.
Violence continues as Abbas, Olmert meet
Alongside the talks, violence continued in Gaza. Late Thursday,
Israeli aircraft killed a senior Islamic Jihad commander, Mohammed
Abdala, the militant group said.
He was the third senior Islamic Jihad militant killed in the last two weeks. The Israeli military confirmed it carried out an air strike.
Four civilians, including a 13-year-old boy, were among those wounded, Palestinian medical officials said.
Three militants were killed in fighting near the southern Gaza town of Khan Younis, according to medical officials and militant groups.
Two other militants were killed in an Israeli air strike in central Gaza, and another in southern Gaza late Thursday, Palestinian medics claimed.
Corrections and Clarifications
- Israel has said the units extend existing neighbourhoods, not settlements as originally reported. Dec. 27, 2007|3:45 p.m. ET
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