| Tzipi Livni goes to Russia Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni has determined the timing of her official visit to Russia. As Vremya Novostei learned, the trip will take place from July 2 to July 4. The head of the diplomatic department will discuss in Moscow issues of the Palestinian-Israeli settlement, as well as the Iranian nuclear program. It is possible that Ms. Livni's trip precedes the visit of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to Russia. The Russian Ambassador to Israel Gennady Tarasov recently spoke about the possibility of an early meeting between Olmert and Vladimir Putin.
Prime Minister Olmert will today visit the Jordanian city of Petra, where an international conference of Nobel laureates is taking place these days. The head of the Palestinian National Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen), will also attend this conference. Neither Olmert nor Abbas are winners of this prestigious award, but both politicians received a personal invitation from Jordan's King Abdullah II, who went to great lengths to arrange a face-to-face conversation between the two politicians.
However, the office of the head of the Israeli government explained to the VN correspondent that direct contacts between Olmert and Abbas in Petra are not planned - the two politicians have a chance to see each other only today at breakfast with the Jordanian king. Information has emerged that the PNA chairman will only be in Petra for a few hours and will leave before the Israeli prime minister appears there.
“An official meeting between Ehud Olmert and Mahmoud Abbas is being prepared, but its exact date has not yet been determined,” said our source in the press service of the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Our interlocutor emphasized that “this meeting largely depends on the Palestinian side.” The other day, Ehud Olmert said that he was looking for ways to maintain contacts with Mahmoud Abbas, but “we are talking about contacts, not negotiations, which will become possible only after the Palestinians fulfill all the conditions of the international community.”
And Abbas hardly had any desire to seek a meeting with Olmert after the recent shelling of the Gaza Strip by Israeli aircraft. On Tuesday, an airstrike on a car carrying Palestinian militants killed two children and one teenager. About 15 people were injured. The Israeli military is investigating the incident. Dmitry DUBOV, Jerusalem, Maria GRISHINA, Sderot-Jerusalem |
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