Abbas-Olmert Summit Set

A Palestinian boy runs away from burning tires during clashes with Israeli soldiers at the Kalandia checkpoint, near Ramallah, on Friday. (EPA)

Hisham Abu Taha & Mohammed Mar’i, Arab News

GAZA CITY, 10 March 2007 — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet tomorrow, officials said, but both sides sought to play down the chances of progress.

Olmert has vowed to boycott the Palestinian unity government that Abbas is forming with Hamas unless it recognizes Israel, renounces violence and accepts interim peace deals as demanded by the Quartet of Middle East mediators.

Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said after Friday prayers the unity government could be unveiled as early as Monday, once Abbas returns to the Gaza Strip and finalizes the Cabinet lineup.

“The meeting is definitely on Sunday,” Abbas aide Saeb Erekat said of the planned summit between Abbas and Olmert, their third since December.

Olmert spokeswoman Miri Eisin said some details of the meeting had yet to be finalized. “It will most likely be Sunday,” she said.

At the meeting, Olmert will tell Abbas the new government must meet the demands of the Quartet, Israeli officials said.

Olmert will also ask Abbas to account for $100 million in Palestinian tax money which Israel transferred to him earlier this year. Some Israeli officials questioned whether the money was used as promised.

Abbas will try to convince Olmert to soften his opposition to the unity government and is expected to raise the possibility of expanding a shaky Gaza truce to the occupied West Bank, Palestinian officials said.

Israeli officials say they will not consider expanding the cease-fire until Palestinians stop firing rockets from the Gaza Strip.

Some Palestinian fighters oppose expanding the truce and Haniyeh said he was unaware of any plans for Hamas to call on other factions to “broaden the calm.”

Senior Hamas lawmaker Mushir Al-Masri said Hamas and other fighter groups would not go along with Gaza’s truce being extended to the occupied West Bank unless Israel first halted all military operations and stopped excavations near Islam’s third holiest site in Jerusalem.

“There can be no talk about calm as long as the digging and harm to Al-Aqsa continued and as long as the Zionist aggression continued,” Masri said, referring to the Israeli archaeological excavations near the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem’s Old City.

Israel says the dig will do no harm to the holy sites on the plaza, which overlooks Judaism’s Western Wall.

The unity government agreement contains a vague promise to “respect” previous Israeli-Palestinian pacts. But it does not commit the incoming government to abide by those pacts, nor to recognize Israel and renounce violence.

Abbas said on Thursday the unity government was “99 percent” agreed but would not be announced until next week. “I can confirm that the remaining distance to forming a national unity government is short,” Haniyeh said yesterday. “These are simple matters and we will finish them when the president (Abbas) returns to Gaza on Monday.”

Abbas and Olmert held a three-way summit last month with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that was overshadowed by differences over the power-sharing deal.

Rice is expected to return to the region for separate talks with Olmert and Abbas later this month.