The Palestinian president has called on Ehud Olmert, whose Kadima party won Israel's general elections on Tuesday, to negotiate with Palestinians and not opt for unilateral solutions if peace is to be given a chance. "The result [of the vote] was expected. But what is more important now is that Olmert changes his agenda and abandon his unilateral plans to fix the borders," Mahmoud Abbas said on Wednesday on the sidelines of an Arab summit in Sudan's capital.
Olmert ran on a platform that advocated annexing the largest settlement blocs from the West Bank and unilaterally withdrawing from those beyond the separation wall Israel is building in the occupied territory. He also wants to fix the Jewish state's hitherto undefined borders by 2010. In separate comments made just before his departure from Khartoum, Abbas repeated his rejection of any unilateral Israeli actions. "We want negotiations and not to dictate unilateral solutions," he said. |