15 members of the Knesset Foreign Affairs & Defense Committee are calling on Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to provide details regarding talks between Israel and Syria. Towards accomplishing this goal, they are demanding an urgent session of the committee be convened to permit the prime minister to brief them. The impetus behind the move is Likud MK Dr. Yuval Shteinitz, a former chairman of the committee. Members of the opposition and the coalition have signed the letter demanding the prime minister brief them.

While the prime minister is scheduled to appear before the committee next week, details of talks between Israel and Syria is not on the agenda and they are now seeking to be briefed on talks that to date have involved Olmert, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni and Brig.-Gen. (Reserves) Udi Dekel.

Committee Chairman Tzachi Hanegbi, who is a member of Olmert’s Kadima party, stated that in the past, prime ministers did not brief the committee on ongoing clandestine talks, and in this case, he does not see why Mr. Olmert should act differently.

In their letter to Hanegbi, the committee members state that it is not fitting for such talks to continue without any “parliamentary supervision.”

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)