Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in Jerusalem on Wednesday, a week after Olmert threw US-sponsored peace talks into limbo by announcing that he would step down. Aides said Olmert favoured freeing some Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails as a goodwill gesture to Abbas, but they gave no timeline.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said Abbas would "raise a number of issues, such as the permanent-status issues, checkpoints and prisoners." Israel's cabinet on Sunday approved the release of five Palestinian prisoners as part of a swap deal with the Lebanese Hezbollah guerrilla group that brought the bodies of two Israeli soldiers home.
Israel released 429 Palestinian prisoners last December to bolster Abbas. A smaller group was released in October. The issue of prisoners is highly emotive for Palestinians, who see their brethren held in Israeli jails as fighters against foreign occupation. Many Israelis fear that such amnesties encourage Palestinian militants to strike again.
Palestinian Prisoner Affairs Minister Ashraf al-Ajrami told Reuters that Abbas would insist that any deal include long-serving prisoners, women and children as well as political leaders, a reference to uprising leader Marwan Barghouthi, seen as a possible successor to Abbas. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, aimed at reaching a statehood deal in 2008, have been marred by disputes over Jewish settlement building and violence.
Faced with a widening corruption probe, Olmert announced last Wednesday that he would stand down as premier after a September 17 leadership contest within his centrist Kadima party. Erekat said Olmert and Abbas would be joined on Wednesday by their chief negotiators, including former Palestinian prime minister Ahmed Qurie and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, a top contender to become Kadima's new chief.
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