In describing the meeting between Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) on Sunday, Gazan Fatah strongman Mohammad Dahlan said it was tense, frank and "very difficult." A statement issued by the Prime Minister's Office after the meeting said it was held "in a positive atmosphere."
Prime Minister Olmert and Abu Mazen, who spoke in private during part of their the two-and-a-half hour meeting, agreed to hold further meetings in the near term. They refrained from addressing the press following the meeting.
Dahlan, who took part in the meeting, said that both sides agreed that the PA unity government is an internal Arab issue. On the other hand, an Israeli government official was quoted as saying, "The Prime Minister presented the Quartet conditions and said that Israel cannot cooperate with a government or with a part of a government that does not respect these conditions."
Also raised were the issues of IDF checkpoints in Judea, Samaria and Gaza, convicted terrorists held in Israeli prisons and the kidnapped soldier Gilad Shalit.
Abu Mazen intimated that Shalit would be released within two weeks.
As the meeting took place, right-wing activists demonstrated outside Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's residence with signs saying, "Gilad Shalit will only be freed by force" and condemning Abu Mazen. IDF Cpl. Shalit, taken hostage in an attack on an army base in 2006, is being held in Gaza by Hamas, Abu Mazen's partner in the PA government.
At Sunday's meeting, Abu Mazen intimated that Shalit would be released within two weeks, but the PA negotiators demanded that Israel release teenagers, females and the ill among terrorist inmates in Israeli prisons.
Another senior PA negotiator, Saeb Erekat, held a press conference in Ramallah following the Olmert-Abbas meeting, at which he said the sides agreed that the current Gaza ceasefire would be extended to Judea and Samaria if it proves successful. Erekat added that the Israeli side will open the Karni Crossing into Israel for an extended period, until 11:00 pm, beginning next month.
Sources in the Prime Minister's Office said that Olmert raised the issue of the ongoing rocket attacks on Israeli cities and towns from the PA-controlled Gaza Strip, as well as the terrorist arms smuggling from Egypt. Prime Minister Olmert also reportedly asked the PA chairman to provide an accounting of 100 million dollars of tax revenue that Israel released to Fatah officials as part of an effort to strengthen Abbas in his internal struggle with Hamas. Neither Abbas nor his aides had an answer to the latter question, but they agreed to provide one later this week.