(Adds Olmert comments, paragraph 10

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reserved judgment on Sunday on a Palestinian unity deal and a senior Israeli official said a U.S.-brokered summit with Palesti"" >

 
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Oddly Enough
1:29PM EST, Sun 11 Feb 2007
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Olmert non-committal on Palestinian unity pact

Sun Feb 11, 2007 11:18AM EST
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(Adds Olmert comments, paragraph 10

By Jeffrey Heller

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Prime Minister Ehud Olmert reserved judgment on Sunday on a Palestinian unity deal and a senior Israeli official said a U.S.-brokered summit with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would be held as planned.

""Israel neither rejects nor accepts the agreements,"" Olmert said about a power-sharing pact signed by Hamas and Fatah, an accord that failed to meet a core demand by the United States and other Middle East peace mediators to recognize Israel.

""At this stage, we, like the international community are learning what was exactly accomplished and what was said,"" he said in broadcast remarks at the weekly cabinet meeting.

A senior Israeli official said Olmert's February 19 summit with Fatah's Abbas and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice would go ahead as scheduled.

However, in a decision likely to intensify tension, the cabinet decided to press ahead with excavations outside Jerusalem's most sensitive shrine, known to Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and to Jews as Temple Mount.

The official said the government rejected Arab assertions that the work, which has led to violent Palestinian protests, could harm al-Aqsa mosque inside the religious compound.  Continued...

 

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