Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert sought to assure Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Monday that peace talks would not be affected by a corruption scandal that could force the Israeli leader to step down. "This process will continue," Olmert's spokesman Mark Regev said after the two leaders met for over an hour in Jerusalem. According to Reuters, Regev added that Olmert recommitted during the meeting to trying to reach a deal on Palestinian statehood by the end of the year.
"I can say unequivocally that there was progress reached in this meeting today," Regev told reporters.
Olmert has so far dismissed calls that he leave office over allegations he took envelopes stuffed with cash from a Jewish-American businessman. Olmert and the businessman have denied wrongdoing.
During the meeting, Olmert on Monday protested Palestinian attempts to curb burgeoning Israeli relations with Europe and the international community. According to the AP, Olmert mentioned letters sent by Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to the European Union and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), a group of the world's 30 most developed countries, in which Fayyad requested they not upgrade ties with Israel in light of ongoing settlement building, and lack of progress in peace talks.
Olmert told Abbas: "This is completely acceptable to us, and does not represent the relations today between the sides, and returns us to the negative rhetoric of the preceding period." The prime minister made the comments at his Jerusalem residence.
For their part, Abbas said before the meeting that settlement expansion, including newly announced building near Jerusalem, imperilled the talks. "If Israel does not halt these activities, it will be difficult to reach the political settlement," Abbas said at a news conference with visiting German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier just before meeting Olmert.
At the news conference with Steinmeier in the West Bank city of Ramallah, Abbas said of the new tenders: "We believe that these measures will be the biggest hurdle in the path of the peace process."
