'Israel ready for concessions'

2007-04-23 19:55

Jerusalem - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday Israel is prepared to make "far-reaching compromises" and "very painful concessions" to achieve peace with its neighbours.

Speaking at a ceremony marking Israel's Memorial Day, Olmert said the country owed its fallen soldiers to continue "the vital effort to achieve the peace we long for" and to "seriously consider every diplomatic initiative".

The 22-country Arab League recently renewed a 5-year-old Saudi initiative offering Israel peace with the Arab world in return for giving up all of the territories it captured in the 1967 Mideast war.

The plan also calls for a solution for Palestinian refugees and their millions of descendants.

Israel objects to a full withdrawal to the pre-1967 lines and has ruled out any return of refugees to former homes inside Israel.

Nonetheless, Olmert has welcomed the Saudi plan as a basis for negotiations.

"We will respect those of our neighbours who desire peace with us," said Olmert at a second ceremony on Monday for Israeli civilians killed in Arab attacks.

Jump-start peace efforts

Israel would "discuss diplomatic agreements and the future of the ties between us with goodwill and readiness to make painful concessions," he said.

But referring to militants targeting Israelis, Olmert vowed Israel "will never cease to pursue them and strike at them until they are destroyed".

Olmert recently started a dialogue with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in hopes of jump-starting stalled peace efforts. At the same time, Israel has been pushing forward with its war against Palestinian militants.

Nine Palestinians were killed in fighting with Israel at the weekend. Most of the dead were militants, but Palestinians said at least two civilians, including a 17-year-old girl, were killed.

The upswing in violence drew calls from Palestinian moderates for Abbas to cut off contacts with Olmert, while the Islamic militant group Hamas, which sits in a coalition government with Abbas' Fatah movement, called for renewed attacks against Israelis.

In continuing violence, Palestinian militants fired a rocket into southern Israel on Monday.

'A difficult decision'

On Saturday, a homemade rocket hit a home in the southern Israeli town of Sderot. No one was injured.

In his Memorial Day speeches, Olmert also mentioned possible prisoner swap deals for the release of an Israeli soldier held by Hamas-linked militants in Gaza and for two others held by Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.

Olmert said his government would not repeat "mistakes made in the past" by releasing prisoners who then carried out more attacks against Israelis.

But Olmert said there would be "no escape in the end from making a difficult decision" on trading prisoners for the captured Israeli troops.

In Lebanon, a top Hezbollah official said on Sunday UN-mediated negotiations on a prisoner swap are going on in a "serious" manner, but so far there have been no results.

- AP