Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Sunday evening that there is an opportunity for peace talks as the Palestinian leadership is committed to agreements signed in past years, local daily Yedioth Ahronoth reported on its website.
According to the prime minister, speaking at the Saban Forum in Jerusalem, Israel and the Palestinians will engage in rigorous talks immediately after the upcoming U.S.-sponsored peace conference, and some concrete achievements may be obtained even before U.S. President George W. Bush's term in office ends at the end of 2008.
"Under the current circumstances, we have a partner and we are not willing to postpone the negotiations with the Palestinians to a time when this partner may not be able to fulfill the task," Olmert was quoted as saying.
"We shall not negotiate Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state, or the Palestinian people's right to their own state," Olmert stressed, referring to the negotiating talks ahead of peace summit to be held in Annapolis, Maryland later this year.
"Annapolis will not be an arena for negotiations, but it will certainly be a starting point for the real effort to realize the two-state vision," he added.
Visiting U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said at the forum that now was the time to take chances for peace, calling on the Arab states to actively strive for peace with Israel.
Rice stated that both sides have waited too long for a resolution to the conflict, adding that painful sacrifices would have to be made by Israel and the Palestinians.
Earlier at the forum, Tony Blair, the Quartet's envoy to the Middle East, said the Annapolis conference should serve as platform for a Palestinian state, and that the international community should support the process.
On Monday, Rice will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Ahmed Qurei who heads the negotiating team and Prime Minister Salam Fayyad in the West Bank city of Ramallah.
Israel and the Palestinians have been engaged in intensive talks in an effort to draft a joint statement outlining a solution to the decades-old conflict ahead of the Annapolis conference.
The Palestinians have repeatedly demanded that the joint statement include a clear timetable for the negotiations, but Israel has insisted on a looser document.
Source: Xinhua
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