Olmert meets with PM Brown

By Justin Cohen - Thursday 25th October 2007


A new era of Anglo-Israeli relations under Gordon Brown kicked off this week with Ehud Olmert hailing his British counterpart’s vow to press for further sanctions to tackle Iran.

Following talks at Downing Street, the Israeli premier spoke of his happiness when Brown said at their press conference at Number 10, “we are ready and will press for further sanctions” to make clear to the country’s regime that their current course would not be accepted.

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“It was explicit, it was powerful, it was clear cut,” the Israeli leader told a gathering of community leaders and Israel activists on Tuesday. Olmert said he had heard similar words from new French leader Nicolas Sarkozy during talks in Paris the previous day, and stressed that the campaign to counter Iran’s efforts should be an international one.

“Israel is not the leader of this effort,” he said. “The reason is first and foremost because this is not the exclusive problem of the state of Israel. It’s the problem of the western civilisation, it’s a problem of United States, of Europe. The ballistic missiles of Iran can reach Europe.” Turning to the issue of negotiations with the Palestinians, he spoke of wanting to create an environment where the Palestinian people could see the potential benefits of talks with Israel.

But saying there were those who will raise questions about the ability of the Palestinians to carry out their commitments, he said: “This is a legitimate question. I ask this question myself, believe me, every day… I say we will not agree to implement any understanding with the Palestinians before the commitments of the roadmap are carried out. So we will not again take the risks without being guaranteed and being ultimayely confident that we can rely on these guarantees. Therefore, what we say is, let’s start to talk.”

But when the day will come for a permanent agreement, he acknowledged that both sides would have to make “painful concessions”, though he predicted that Israeli and Jewish public opinion would accept this.

Of that, he said, there is “no doubt in my mind” as long as the agreement brought security and protected the Jewish and democratic nature of Israel.

However, speaking at Number 10 earlier, he indicated there would still be some way to go before a final settlement. And speaking about the joint statement that it’shoped will be produced between Israel and the Palestinian ahead of talks in Annapolis in November, he said: “This is a short joint statement that will not provide solutions but will refer to the core issues. I think what we need to do is to set the direction.

“No one seriously can expect that within this short span of time between now and the end of November we can achieve what we haven't been doing in the last 40 years, which is to agree on a comprehensive solution of all the core issues outstanding between us and the Palestinians and to define it, to praise it, to present it and to have the support of our peoples for it.

“What we want to do, and this is what we said Annapolis is the purpose of, is to set the direction, that is to refer to the core issues but not to offer solutions on these issues, and to set the direction for negotiations that after the ratification of the statement in the respective political bodies that are responsible for the Palestinians and for ourselves, we will immediately commence in continuous negotiations on the details of all the core issues and we will try to come up with agreed solutions.”

While in London, Olmert also took the opportunity to praise Israeli Ambassador Zvi Heifetz, who will return to Israel next month. The Prime Minister said: “He was an outstanding Ambassador for the state of Israel and I enjoyed very much the judgments, the wisdom, the determination and the emotional involvement that he has manifested over these last three and a half years as Ambassador of the state of Israel.”

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