JERUSALEM/RAMALLAH, 11 September 2007 — Israeli and Palestinian leaders yesterday reaffirmed their commitment to a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict and appointed negotiating teams ahead of a US-sponsored peace conference.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert also promised Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas to release prisoners as a gesture of good will for the holy month of Ramadan, after earlier refusing to agree to the Palestinian demand.
“The two emphasized their commitment to a two-state solution living side by side in peace and security and have therefore decided to appoint teams on both sides in order to promote this goal,” said a joint statement released by Olmert’s office following talks with Abbas in Jerusalem.
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the “work teams were charged with discussing the details of a framework agreement on the creation of a Palestinian state.” A Palestinian official told AFP that the meeting was “positive and successful.”
Meanwhile, the head of Israeli National Security Council (NSC), Ilan Mizrachi, his deputy and counterterrorism bureau head, decide to resign from their posts, a report said yesterday. “Due to the political culture and other reasons, the council is no longer able to fill the central role it deserves,” Mizrachi told the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot.
Israeli government officials told Yediot that Mizrachi was leaving because he felt he had exhausted his capacity at the NSC. Mizrachi took office on June 2006, shortly before the kidnapping of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Palestinian armed groups and about a month before the July War on Lebanon broke out.
According to the sources, he attempted to implement changes in the NSC’s work, and during his tenure had presented dozens of documents regarding Iran, Syria, Lebanon and the Palestinian Authority.
