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June 24, 2005
Olmert on Summit
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Deputy Prime Minister Ehud Olmert commented on the recent Sharon/Abbas summit:
...Tuesday's summit was much more serious and fruitful than it appeared. Sharon was very flexible and forthcoming. Abu Mazen's agenda, of course, required him to convince everyone that Sharon wasn't yielding on anything.
But the truth is that Sharon proposed relinquishing control of two more cities [Bethlehem and Kalkilya] to the PA. He also said he would seriously review the release of additional prisoners. And he's prepared to go ahead with the removal of more road blocks.
The Palestinian reaction made Sharon appear much more unyielding than he really was. So, no one needs to be carried away by the rhetoric.
Olmert's comments further underscore the problems with AFP's recent "news story," which already in the headline accused Sharon of "brushing off" Abbas — and, as noted in a recent blog entry, went downhill from there.
Posted by at June 24, 2005 02:08 PM