Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas met at the prime minister’s residence in Jerusalem Tuesday, three weeks after their meeting in Jericho.
Abbas and Olmert on Tuesday (Photo: Amos Ben Gershom)
Olmert opened the meeting by thanking Abbas for efforts made by Palestinian security forces in rescuing an IDF soldier who had accidentally entered the West Bank town of Jenin on Monday.
Olmert also thanked the Palestinian president for freezing the funds of 100 associations affiliated with the Hamas organization.
Before the meeting began, Abbas signed the prime minister’s guestbook for the first time since the two began meeting to discuss the US-sponsored international conference on Israeli-Palestinian peace scheduled to take place in November.
“It is my honor to meet the prime minister in his home. I hope and wish for the peace between us to move forward, and for both peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, to see the peace we are aspiring for,” Abbas wrote.
The one-on-one meeting will likely the last about two hours, after which Olmert and Abbas are expected to schedule several more meetings ahead of the US-sponsored international conference.