Olmert likely to meet Abbas: Israeli officials

By Jonathan Saul

JERUSALEM (Reuters) – Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud
Olmert is likely to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas
after seeking U.S. support for his plan for the occupied West
Bank, vice premier-designate Shimon Peres said on Tuesday.

Olmert, whose new government is slated to be sworn in on
Thursday, has pledged to impose Israel’s borders by 2010 with
or without Palestinian agreement.

His “convergence plan” includes evacuating isolated Jewish
settlements while beefing up major blocs, moves Olmert said he
would make unilaterally in the absence of peacemaking with the
Palestinians, whose government is now run by the militant Hamas
group.

“I think that Olmert will meet with (Abbas) after the
establishment of the government — I think maybe after his
visit to the United States — because we said that we are going
to try for a while to reach a bilateral agreement,” Peres told
The Jerusalem Post.

Israeli government sources have said Olmert will meet
President Bush at the White House around May 23 and provide the
outlines for his West Bank plan.

Olmert has called Abbas a failed leader, and Foreign
Minister Tzipi Livni dismissed him as irrelevant because the
Palestinian Authority is now controlled by Hamas, which
advocates Israel’s destruction.

“We say, sure, we’ll talk to (Abbas), but to what avail,”
said a senior official in Olmert’s centrist Kadima party. “We
can talk to Abbas, but he can’t do anything.”

Olmert spokesman Assaf Shariv said: “A meeting between the
two leaders is not on our agenda right now.”

Palestinians have said Olmert’s West Bank plan would not
foster peace and also annex land they want for a state of their
own.

EXPECTATIONS

Haim Ramon, a top official in Olmert’s centrist Kadima
party, told Israel Radio that he believed the two leaders
should meet, though it was unclear when.

“It needs to be held. It must be held,” Ramon said. “We
need to relay to (Abbas) what we expect from him.”

A senior Israeli official said Olmert intended to hold
talks with Abbas but that “the meeting has to have substance
and have the backing of the U.S.”

Abbas’s peacemaking policies were rejected by Hamas after
it won elections in January.

Abbas has said he is ready to resume negotiations with
Israel immediately and that he proposed opening “a back channel
of talks” to U.S. officials and Peres, a former prime minister
who has spearheaded peace efforts in the past.

Hamas’s shock election victory appeared to torpedo any
hopes of resuming negotiations to end the Israeli-Palestinian
conflict.

The United States and the European Union have told Hamas it
must recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept interim
peace accords. Israel has said it would have no dealings with
Hamas until the group accepted those demands.

Hamas says talks with Israel would be a waste of time. The
group has carried out nearly 60 suicide bombings against
Israelis since a Palestinian uprising began in 2000, but has
largely abided by a year-old ceasefire.