Olmert hopes to resume peace talks with Palestinians

Acting Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in his first policy statement today that he hopes to start working on a final peace deal with Palestinians after Israel’s March 28 elections, and hinted that Palestinians in Jerusalem might not always be under Israeli rule.

In a reference to Iran, Olmert also warned that Israel could not let countries with “hostile intentions” acquire weapons of mass destruction.

Olmert became acting prime minister on January 4 after Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a massive stroke. Olmert-watchers say he is more amenable to talks than was Sharon, who didn’t consider the Palestinians to be trustworthy negotiating partners.

“I hope that after the January 25 Palestinian elections results are in, and after our election results are in, that I will able to enter into negotiations with Abu Mazen … on a final status agreement between us and the Palestinians,” Olmert told a news conference, referring to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas by his widely known name.

A condition for resuming the talks, Olmert said, would be Abbas’ disarming of militant Palestinian groups – the same condition Sharon had long set before embarking on his unilateral withdrawal from the Gaza Strip.

The basis for the negotiations, Olmert said, would be the US-backed “road map” peace plan, which stalled shortly after its presentation more than two years ago because of Israeli settlement expansion and the Palestinian Authority’s failure to disarm militants.

Olmert defended Israel’s recent decision to let Palestinians in east Jerusalem vote in Palestinian parliament elections, rather than bar their participation because Hamas militants are running for office.

Israel, he said, has no interest in letting the 230,000 Palestinian residents of Jerusalem vote in its elections.

But it can’t both bar them from taking part in Israeli elections and deprive them of the right to vote in Palestinian balloting, he said, obliquely opening the possibility that Arab residents of Jerusalem would not be ruled by Israel forever.

“The responsible approach … is that as long as we don’t cede our authority and sovereignty in all parts of Jerusalem, we certainly have an interest in preserving the link between the residents of east Jerusalem and a Palestinian state, and not the state of Israel,” he said.

The Palestinians claim traditionally Arab east Jerusalem as the capital of a future state.

Olmert, who was mayor of Jerusalem for a decade beginning in 1993, has said in the past that Israel might have to relinquish some Arab neighbourhoods in east Jerusalem.

He still opposes giving up all of the eastern sector, and in particular, the walled Old City, with its key holy sites of Judaism, Islam and Christianity, close associates have said.

Later today, a team of top Israeli security experts were to leave for Russia to seek support against suspected Iranian efforts to develop nuclear weapons.

Asked about Iran, Olmert said that “under no circumstances can Israel allow someone with hostile intentions against us to have control over weapons of mass destruction that can endanger our existence”.

“I believe there is a way to guarantee that non-conventional weapons won’t be found in irresponsible hands that can endanger world peace,” Olmert said, without elaborating.

Iran says its nuclear programme is intended only to produce energy, but Israel, the US and others accuse Tehran of seeking to develop nuclear arms.

Israeli officials have said repeatedly that they hope diplomacy can end the crisis. At the same time, they’ve warned that a military strike against Iranian nuclear facilities, led by others, might be necessary – but only as a last resort.

Israeli combat jets knocked out Iraq’s unfinished nuclear reactor more than two decades ago. But military experts have said a similar attack on Iran’s nuclear project would be far more complex, because facilities are dispersed and some are hidden underground.

The Israeli delegation hopes to win Russian backing for referring the Iranian nuclear issue to the UN Security Council, the Haaretz newspaper website reported. A referral to the council could result in sanctions against Iran.

At the news conference, Olmert also said Israel would deal forcefully with a group of Israeli squatters who took over an abandoned Palestinian market in the holy city of Hebron and clashed with police sent to evict them.

He said the harsh line would apply not only to illegal settlers in Hebron, but also to Israelis who have moved into other Palestinian areas such as Amona, a West Bank outpost slated for evacuation.

“There will be no hesitation,” he said. “Those who raise a hand against a soldier or policeman will be punished with all force, and will be removed from any place where they are illegal. This goes for Hebron, this goes for Amona, this will also go for other places.”