Senior foreign ministry sources said that the main issue Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will raise with the U.S. government in his visit to Washington next week is the crisis with Iran, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
According to the sources, the convergence plan for withdrawal from the West Bank will only be discussed in general terms.
The sources also said that U.S. officials are preparing a very warm welcome for Olmert, who will be making his first visit to the U.S. as prime minister.
Olmert's visit will include a six-hour meeting with President George W. Bush, the sources said.
On Friday the foreign ministry said that Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Vice Premier Shimon Peres are set to meet Sunday with Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Sharm al-Sheikh.
The three will meet at the International Economic Forum convention.
On Thursday the Foreign Ministry denied that Livni would meet with the PA Chairman, only confirming that "the Foreign Minister will gave a speech on the same podium Abbas will speak from, but at the moment no meeting has been scheduled."
On Wednesday, however, Livni told her French counterpart Philippe Douste-Blazy that Israel is not ignoring Abbas and considers him to be "a positive figure."
Finance Minister Avraham Hirchson, National Infrastructures Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer and Tourism Minister Yitzhak Herzog will also attend the conference, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
Herzog is scheduled to meet with his counterparts from Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Kuwait and Qatar, the radio said.
Olmert: Israel to consult Palestinians before making changes
The announcement on the planned meeting with Abbas came after the New York Times published Thursday an interview with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert where he said that the convergence plan is "a dynamic concept" requiring preparation, and said Israel would consult with Palestinians before making changes in the region.
Olmert is scheduled to make his first trip as prime minister to the United States next week.
"It has to be very carefully examined and very, very sensitively elaborated before we know precisely how to define it," he told the Times. "What I can talk about at this point is the basic desire to set borders for Israel, to separate from the Palestinians, and to create a contiguous territory that will allow the Palestinians to fulfill their national dreams and establish their own independent state alongside the state of Israel."
He said the convergence plan "needs to be coordinated with a lot of sensitivity with our different partners, particularly the United States government and the president, and of course, the United Nations, the Europeans, the Russians."
When asked about the Palestinians, Olmert said, "I don't believe that at any time in the future we will change things without talking to the Palestinians, without coordinating with the Palestinians, without checking with the Palestinians."
Olmert said he thanks God every day for America, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who he referred to as "the most decent people that I can talk with and take counsel with them and get their advice and get their support."
He went on to state that he "liked and respected Mr. Abbas as a man opposed to terrorism and violence," but said that the PA Chairman must dismantle Hamas as an armed terrorist group, as agreed upon in the road map peace initiative. "He must rise to the opportunity and to the challenge and take vigorous action against the terrorist organizations."
Olmert went on to say that Palestinians are natural partners of Israelis but are victims of "irresponsible, reckless corrupt leadership and a total lack of democratic traditions that always drew them away from the mainstream and into the sidelines, and into tragedies and pain."
Olmert said Israel will buy drugs and medical equipment needed by Palestinian hospitals in the Gaza Strip using some of the tax monies and customs receipts being withheld from the Palestinian Authority.
"We will pay if necessary out of our own pockets," he said, and get what is needed directly to the hospitals "as soon as possible," circumventing the Hamas government, Olmert said. "We wouldn't allow one baby to suffer one night because of a lack of dialysis. We care. We want to save their lives."
He went on to say that the Palestinians "are the victims of their own extremist, fundamentalist, religious, inflexible and unyielding leadership, and we will do everything in our power to help these innocent people."
PM tones down convergence plan hype ahead of U.S. trip
As Olmert prepares for his first official trip to Washington next week, he appears to be taking a step back from vocally advocating the convergence plan, Haaretz diplomatic correspondent Aluf Benn reported on Thursday.
Olmert told Kadima ministers Wednesday that he plans to present his plan to the Bush administration, but that only after "three, or 10, months," will it be possible to announce there is no Palestinian negotiation partner and move on to unilateral steps. The plan involves withdrawal from large swaths of the West Bank, but not from major settlement blocs.
"Everything depends on the situation on the ground," Olmert said.
He told Kadima ministers that the primary objective of his upcoming trip is to create a rapport with U.S. President George W. Bush, with whom Olmert will meet at the White House on Tuesday.
Olmert said the key issue on the table will be the Iranian nuclear threat. The prime minister is planning to describe the severity with which Israel views the threat, and explain that the country is not leading the international struggle against Iran, but expects the United States and other countries to do everything they can to halt the threat.
Meanwhile, Army Radio on Thursday quoted the prime minister's bureau as saying that the visit will also aim to show Israel's interest in dialogue with the Palestinians.
Olmert's decision to tone down his stance on the convergence plan may be related to staunch opposition worldwide to Israeli unilateral moves in the territories. Prior to his meeting with the ministers, the prime minister received a message from the three envoys he had sent to Washington to prepare the ground for his visit - Dov Weissglas, Yoram Turbowicz and Shalom Turjeman - and the message might have concerned the American stance on convergence.
The U.S. wants Olmert to adopt a low profile on unilateralism and dedicate the next few months to negotiation efforts, although it has not retreated from its stated support of the plan in principle.
© Copyright 2006 Haaretz
