Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert is soon to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Israeli public radio reported yesterday, citing an unnamed senior official.
The meeting is due to take place "within upcoming days," it quoted the official as saying, adding that no firm date has been set.
Abbas said on Thursday that he hoped to meet with the Israeli leader before the end of the year. It would be the first meeting between the two men since an informal encounter in Jordan six months ago.
When questioned about the report, Olmert's spokeswoman Miri Eisin said: "We have not yet fixed a date. The Palestinian side is delaying the encounter."
The report comes days after British Prime Minister Tony Blair called for an initiative to jumpstart the Middle East peace process, which has been in a slumber for six years.
A senior Palestinian official has said that the initiative would be worked out in coordination with the US, and would be unveiled by US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during her expected visit to the region early next year.
Olmert last week paid a surprise visit to Jordan, whose King Abdullah II has warned of "disastrous" consequences if progress in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was not made in the next six months.
Abbas was due to travel to Jordan on today, but it has been indefinitely postponed according to the Palestinian ambassador to Jordan Atallah Khairy.
"President Abbas is determined to attend the Christmas celebrations in Bethlehem in accordance with the tradition set by the late Yasser Arafat," Khairy said yesterday.
Abbas had been due to hold talks with Abdullah after deadly clashes in the Gaza Strip between his secular Fatah faction and the ruling Islamist movement Hamas following his call last weekend for early elections.
An offer by the king to host a meeting between Abbas and Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniya had been rejected by the Palestinian leadership.
Meanwhile, assailants fired on the car of a senior Palestinian security official yesterday, wounding him, a bodyguard and a girl in intensifying factional fighting in the Gaza Strip.
Earlier yesterday, Hamas gunmen and security forces briefly exchanged fire near Abbas' Gaza City compound and the Hamas-run Foreign Ministry.
The deadly confrontations began nearly two weeks ago, with a shooting ambush that killed the three young children of an Abbas-allied intelligence officer, and intensified with Abbas' announcement last week that he is seeking new elections, in a challenge to the Islamic militant Hamas. Hamas has accused Abbas of trying to topple its 10-month-old government.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for yesterday's drive-by shooting in the southern Gaza town of Rafah. The target, Hassan Jarbouh, is the deputy chief of the Rafah branch of the Preventive Security Service, which is loyal to Abbas.
Jarbouh, who was on his way to work, was in a critical condition. His bodyguard and the girl, a bystander, suffered moderate wounds.
In all, 17 people have been killed and scores wounded in factional fighting, including heavy gun battles in densely populated neighborhoods, since the ambush on the young children.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese