Israel's prime minister Ehud Olmert has declared that Israel and the Palestinians had never been closer to making peace. Olmert agreed, in a one-on-one meeting with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas, to the release an unspecified number of Palestinian prisoners held in Israeli jails, an Israeli official said. Abbas, who met with Olmert at the Elysée presidential palace in Paris ahead of a summit of European, Middle Eastern and North African leaders, also sounded a positive note about the troubled peace talks, saying both sides were "serious and want to achieve peace." The two men met with French President Nicolas Sarkozy before sitting down together one-on-one. Olmert and Abbas also posed on the steps of the Elysée with Sarkozy in the middle. After the meeting, Olmert spokesman Mark Regev said Israel was committed to "try to reach a historic agreement by the end of this year." Such an agreement, he said, "would outline what a two-state solution would look like."
Meanwhile, Sarkozy accepted Syrian president Assad's invitation to have France co-mediate any direct negotiations between Israel and Syria. Sarkozy said the United States would also serve as mediator for any Israel-Syria negotiations when a new American president took office next year. Israel and Syria are currently holding indirect peace talks through Turkey. Some 43 nations from around the Mediterranean shores and the European Union gathered to discuss common economic, environmental and political issues. Lebanon and Syria said they would take steps to normalize diplomatic ties and open embassies in both countries for the first time since Syria became independent in 1945 and Lebanon in 1943. Assad, however, was cautious about setting a timetable for such an event.
President Sarkozy described Sunday's Mediterranean summit as an historic event because it gathered almost all the Arab heads of state alongside the Israeli prime minister. However, Syria’s Assad did not shake hands with Olmert and reportedly left the room when the Israeli prime minister addressed the plenary. Qatar’s Emir Shaykh Hamad Bin-Khalifah Al-Thani met with Olmert. The two leaders discussed a number of regional issues, on top of which were Iran's nuclear file and the developments of the Middle East peace talks, the news channel 'Al-Arabiya' reported.
Read about the WJC's campaign to Stop the Iranian Threat
