PA President Abbas
Photo: AP
Palestinian sources: Abbas to meet Olmert soon
Israeli prime minister and Palestinian president rumored to meet as soon as Monday. Negotiations minister Erekat says significant advances have been made towards meeting
Close associates of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas claimed Thursday that he would soon meet with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert.
Further, Negotiations Minister Dr. Saeb Erekat also noted the two leaders were expected to meet soon. According to Erekat, there has been significant progress in advance of the meeting. Erekat added that contacts were continuing intensively, and when preparations were complete Abbas and Olmert would meet.
The sources claimed the Olmert’s Jordan visit and the expected meeting between Abbas and Jordanian King Abdullah pave the way for the end-of-the-year meeting.
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He noted that the Palestinian president has nothing preventing him from participating in such a meeting as soon as possible.
Independent Palestinian news agency Maan reported that the meeting was expected as soon as Monday. According to the report, the meeting would be held as soon as most of the disagreements preventing the two from meeting were solved.
The main controversial issue is the release of prisoners – regarding which Israel agreed for the first time to select the prisoners to be released together with the Palestinians as part of a prisoner exchange deal. The report was not officially confirmed on the Palestinian side.
