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JERUSALEM, Oct 16: Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday he saw an axis for peace with Israel developing among what he termed moderate Arab countries to counter the threats of a nuclear Iran and militants.
In a speech to parliament, Mr Olmert called on Lebanese Prime Minister Fouad Siniora to meet him face-to-face — an appeal that Mr Siniora swiftly turned down — and again voiced a readiness for talks with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
“There are numerous voices in the Arab world speaking in favour of a peace agreement (with Israel),” Mr Olmert said.
“I am pleased a moderate axis of countries in the Arab world has been created that wants to take part in blocking Iran’s influence on the region. The Iranian threat is aimed not only against Israel and the free world, but also against Arab countries around us,” he said in the policy speech.
Mr Olmert reiterated that a nuclear Iran, whose president has called for Israel’s destruction, would pose ‘an existential threat’ to the Jewish state.
“Israel is cooperating with the international community to head it off. This is a historic crossroads for the entire international community and it has a duty to prevent Iran from achieving a nuclear capability,” he said.
“There’s no room for questions or wavering. The world must act with determination ... and ensure that Iran does not have nuclear weapons. The latest events in North Korea demonstrate the danger,” he said, referring to Pyongyang’s recent announcement it had carried out a nuclear test.
Iran has rejected international calls to stop uranium enrichment, a programme it says is only for peaceful purposes.
Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East’s only nuclear power, has said it wants the United States and other Western countries to take the lead in confronting Iran.
On Tuesday, Mr Olmert heads to Russia, which has been reluctant to back possible UN Security Council sanctions against Iran. The Israeli leader said Iran would be at the centre of his talks in Moscow with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
LEBANON APPEAL: In his speech to the opening of the Knesset’s winter session, Mr Olmert said he hoped his call to Lebanon’s Siniora to meet him would lead to ‘direct talks to bring peace to our peoples’.
Last month, after the end of a 34-day war between Israel and Hezbollah militants, Mr Olmert said he had made numerous unsuccessful offers to Mr Siniora to talk peace.
Mr Siniora dismissed the new appeal too, calling on Israel to accept an Arab peace initiative floated by Saudi Arabia in 2002 that would offer peace in return for Israel’s withdrawal from land occupied since the 1967 war.
“The prime minister has announced more than once that Lebanon will be the last Arab country to sign peace with Israel,” Mr Siniora’s office said in a statement.
Mr Olmert also reiterated his readiness for talks with Mr Abbas, a meeting the United States hopes could bolster the moderate Palestinian leader in his power struggle with the governing Hamas movement.
“I pledge to work tirelessly to take advantage of any opportunity, any crack, any possibility of holding negotiations that will lead to real dialogue with responsible representatives of the Palestinian people,” he said.
But Mr Olmert stressed that the release of an Israeli soldier seized by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid from Gaza in June was paramount. —Reuters
