WASHINGTON, May 23: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met President George Bush on Tuesday facing US pressure to hold ‘serious talks’ with moderate Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and bypass the Hamas-led government.
Mr Olmert, on his first US visit since his election in March, intended to outline his emerging plan for the future of the occupied West Bank to a wary American president.
Mr Bush tended to hold off on embracing Mr Olmert’s ideas. They call for removing remote Jewish settlements, keeping larger enclaves forever and unilaterally imposing a border if peace efforts remain frozen.
Senior officials said Mr Bush wants to be convinced that Mr Olmert’s go-it-alone proposal, which has spurred Arab opposition and European concern, will not prejudice any future final-status talks for a two-state solution to the conflict.
White House spokesman Tony Snow said Washington does not expect Israel to talk to Hamas.
But Mr Snow said the administration considers Mr Abbas, who has a history of negotiating with Israel, the ‘logical person to deal with’.
“We are interested in making sure that (Olmert) has serious talks with his Palestinian counterpart,” Snow told reporters. Olmert has expressed a willingness to do so, but has deemed Abbas “powerless” to act while Hamas rules. With peacemaking long on hold and hopes for progress dimmed further, no major decisions were expected at the summit.
“Olmert needs to convince the United States ... that we exhausted all opportunities and that there’s nothing else, and we have to go for this unilateral disengagement,” one Israeli official said.
Mr Olmert took over from Ariel Sharon in January after the Israeli leader suffered an incapacitating stroke, and his centrist Kadima party won a March 28 general election.—Reuters
