Olmert and Brown
Photo: AP
Olmert: Stop attacking Livni on Shalit
During London visit, prime minister rejects criticism directed at Kadima chairwoman over her remark that not all kidnapped soldiers can be returned home
LONDON – Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
on Tuesday rejected the criticism directed at Foreign Minister and Kadima
Chairwoman Tzipi Livni
following her remark that not all kidnapped Israeli soldiers can be returned home.
The foreign minister said
last week, on the 900th day since Gilad Shalit's abduction,
that "not everyone can be returned".
Speaking during a visit to London, Olmert said it was unfair to take advantage of the election campaign in order to attack Livni.
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"I don’t share this criticism and I reject outright any attempt to attack Kadima's premiership candidate. It's wrong, unjustified and unfair. Intensive activities are taking place on the Gilad Shalit issue, and I am involved in them on a daily basis," Olmert said, expressing his hope that these activities would bear fruit.
"The State is committed to exert any effort in order to return its soldiers who have been kidnapped or taken hostage. This has wide consensus. The interpretation given to Livni's remarks was unfair, and if this hadn't taken place in the midst of an election campaign it wouldn't have been given.
"Tzipi Livni, like any other Israeli citizen, wants Gilad Shalit to return home. Kadima is my party and I'll do everything to help Livni become the Israeli prime minister. She has a better chance than any other candidate," the prime minister added.
During Olmert's meeting with Gordon Brown, the British prime minister urged him to lift the economic restrictions imposed on the Palestinians and the siege imposed on the Gaza Strip. Brown's office said that Israel's restriction policy damages the chances of peace.
The Quartet's envoy to the Middle East, former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, appealed to the Israeli prime minister on Monday with a similar request to end the blockade.
In a letter sent by Blair, the World Bank president and chairman of the International Monetary Fund, the three noted that the damage caused to Gaza's banking system stops the Strip's residents from fulfilling their basic needs and weakens Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas' regime.
