Palestinian, Israeli leaders renew talks

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas met here Monday for the first time in six weeks, as the two leaders sought to make inroads on U.S.-sponsored peace talks before President Bush’s visit to Israel next month.

Bush arrives in mid-May to help commemorate Israel’s 60th anniversary. His administration is making a strong push for Israelis and Palestinians to achieve a lasting peace settlement before he leaves office early next year.

Abbas and Olmert met for two hours along with their senior negotiating teams, then conferred one-on-one for an additional hour.

Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, who attended the negotiating sessions, characterized the discussions as “in-depth and serious” and said the two leaders hoped to meet again in about two weeks.

Neither side would provide details of the substance of Monday’s discussions, which were expected to address the core issues that have derailed previous attempts at a lasting peace. These include the potential division of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and the final borders of an independent Palestinian state.

“If our talks with the Palestinians are going to succeed, there has to be a high level of discretion,” said Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev.

Since the U.S.-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis, Md., in November kicked off the current negotiating push, talks between the two sides have been frequently challenged by events on the ground. Abbas briefly suspended the sessions last month after more than 100 Palestinians, many of them civilians, were killed during an Israeli incursion in the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Each side has regularly accused the other of violating terms of the U.S.-backed peace plan known as the road map, which requires Israel to halt settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and charges Palestinians with reining in militant groups.

A parade of U.S. officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, has visited Israel in recent months to nudge the two sides along. Rice has said neither side is moving fast enough and recently criticized Olmert’s decision to greenlight the construction of new settlement housing in East Jerusalem. Palestinians hope the predominantly Arab area will be the capital of their independent state.

Despite the lack of public progress, the heads of the two negotiating teams, former Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Ahmed Korei and Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, have met dozens of times for unpublicized bargaining sessions. Livni has acknowledged the ongoing contacts, but hasn’t commented on the state of the talks.

Both Abbas and Olmert say they are committed to the peace process, but they also face significant domestic challenges. Right-wing parties in Olmert’s fragile coalition regularly threaten to bring down the government if the prime minister makes too many concessions.

Abbas faces serious questions about his government’s legitimacy after his Fatah faction lost parliamentary elections in 2006 to Hamas and later lost control of the Gaza Strip to the Islamic militant movement’s forces. Recent polls in the West Bank and Gaza Strip showed that Abbas’ popularity had plummeted as Palestinians lost faith in the current negotiations.

Regev, the Israeli spokesman, acknowledged the difficulties. But he said: “We can’t allow these concerns to interfere with the goal of reaching a historic agreement by the end of the year.”

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ashraf.khalil@latimes.com