Olmert, Abbas Discuss Two-State Solution

TEL AVIV, Israel — Prime Minister Olmert and the Palestinian Authority president, Mahmoud Abbas, meeting in Palestinian Arab-controlled territory for the first time, talked about how they can accelerate efforts to establish a Palestinian state.“Our intention is to bring about two states for two people who live beside each other in security, and we want to do this as soon as possible,” Mr. Olmert said yesterday in a statement after the meeting, which took place in the West Bank town of Jericho. Both leaders returned home without talking to reporters.Messrs. Olmert and Abbas agreed last week in separate meetings with Secretary of State Rice that they are ready to discuss the “fundamental issues” of Palestinian statehood. Ms. Rice wants to see progress between Messrs. Olmert and Abbas before an international conference on Middle East peace that President Bush plans to hold before the end of the year.Yesterday’s three-hour meeting held symbolic importance as the first time an Israeli prime minister has met a Palestinian Arab leader in seven years at a site controlled by the Palestinian Authority. Two previous efforts to arrange meetings in Jericho in June and July were canceled.The talks were held at the Inter-Continental Hotel, just beyond the military checkpoints that separate an area of the West Bank controlled by Israel and the town of Jericho, which is governed by the Palestinian Authority. The hotel complex contains a casino that was popular with Israelis before it was closed in 2000 after the outbreak of the Palestinian intifada, or uprising.“It was a very positive, constructive and promising meeting,” David Baker, a spokesman for Mr. Olmert, said in a phone interview from Jerusalem. “Both leaders agreed to widen the content of their future talks in order to advance understandings and speed up the establishment of a Palestinian state.”Aides to Mr. Abbas planned to brief reporters later.Besides statehood issues, Messrs. Olmert and Abbas talked about cooperation between Israeli and Palestinian Arab security forces and efforts to deliver humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, Mr. Baker said. Mr. Olmert said he would consider Mr. Abbas’s request to release more Palestinian Arab prisoners from Israeli jails and remove roadblocks in the West Bank, according to the spokesman.Security around the Olmert-Abbas meeting was tight, with the whole area sealed off by Israeli and Palestinian Arab security forces. Journalists weren’t allowed in the hotel area.Mr. Abbas’s power has been limited to the West Bank since the Islamic Hamas movement took control of the Gaza Strip in June. Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by America and the European Union, says Mr. Abbas has lost his legitimacy.“These meetings are just a repeat of a long history that brought nothing for the Palestinian people,” Ismail Haniyeh, a Hamas leader and the Palestinian Authority prime minister until he was fired by Mr. Abbas, said at a meeting of his provisional government in Gaza City.

Olmert, Abbas Discuss Two-State Solution

Olmert, Abbas Discuss Two-State Solution

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