Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Monday afternoon met with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas (Abu Mazen) prior to departing for Washington, where he will be holding meetings with President Bush, Vice President Cheney, Secretary of State Rice, and presidential hopefuls McCain, Obama and Clinton. The prime minister will also be addressing an AIPAC event.

In his meeting with the PA leader, Olmert assured him that the investigation against him will not throw ongoing peace efforts off track.

In other matters, Olmert was critical of the PA following a letter by Prime Minister Salim Fayyad to the European Union and the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in which the PA calls on the EU not to upgrade Israel’s status due to ongoing “settlement construction”.

The PA leader did not back down however, stating if the building plans are not halted, it is difficult to see how the sides which reach an agreement. The “settlement construction” referred to by Abu Mazen is the new building plans for Jerusalem.

Also present at the meeting was Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni.

(Yechiel Spira – YWN Israel)