Israel 'ready to talk'

2006-11-13 13:50

Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said he was ready to talk to a Palestinian unity government including Hamas if the Islamists bow to international demands, in an interview published on Monday.

"If Hamas accepts the quartet conditions, I will sit down with them," Olmert was quoted as saying in a rare interview with the leading daily newspaper in the Palestinian territories, Al-Quds.

The so-called quartet of the European Union, Russia, the United Nations and the United States, boycotts the current Hamas-led government, demanding that it recognise Israel, past agreements and formally renounce violence.

Justifying a potential shift in approach, Olmert recalled that Israel had boycotted PLO leaders, such as current president Mahmud Abbas, before later negotiating with them after the Palestinian body recognised Israel in 1993.

"I have not checked the file of each minister (in the future Palestinian government). Even Abu Mazen (Abbas) belongs to an organisation that we considered as terrorist in the past but he adopted new principles to which he remains faithful," he said.

The interview appeared after feuding Palestinian factions agreed that a US-educated independent academic, Mohammed Shbeir, head a new unity government replacing the current premier, Ismail Haniya of Hamas.

Abbas announced on Saturday that he expected a Palestinian unity government, made up of members of his Fatah party and the rival Hamas movement, to see the light of day by the end of November.

- AFP