Word: olmert
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...deck seemed stacked against U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice at the start of Monday's three-way summit with Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. No one really was in a mood to talk - and politics back in Washington was getting in Rice...
...would withhold judgment on the controversial Palestinian government until it is formed in five weeks. But her caution, and any leeway for bargaining, was undercut by news from Washington. Soon after her arrival in Jerusalem on Saturday, the Israeli press reported that President George W. Bush already had assured Olmert that the U.S. will never deal with the new government until Hamas softens its stance by recognizing the Jewish state's right to exist and renouncing violence. That is an apparent reflection of an important faction in the Administration - one led by Vice President Dick Cheney - that has been urging...
...Israeli-Palestinian talks that will lay the groundwork for the establishment of a peaceful Palestinian state. State Department officials said today that Rice still plans to travel to Jerusalem Feb. 19 for Israeli-Palestinian-U.S. trilateral talks with Abbas, [popularly known as Abu Mazen] and Israeli President Ehud Olmert...
...There is no doubt about that," says an Arab official. "But how deep, how strong this effort is going to be--it's too early to tell." The first test will come later this month, when Rice plans to convene a summit in Jerusalem between Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas...
Rice's chances for success aren't great. Olmert's job-approval ratings are even more dismal than Bush's, and Abbas is struggling to prevent clashes among rival factions from escalating into civil war. And then there's the trouble with Rice herself. She did herself few favors in Arab eyes by failing to restrain Israel's bombing campaign against Lebanon last summer. Her refusal to negotiate with Syria baffles diplomats in the region, who believe the U.S. is missing an opportunity to peel Damascus away from its alliance with Iran. And Rice's relationship with Abbas, in particular...