BREAKING NEWS

Report: PA wants US to push Israel on Olmert deal

Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erekat told US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns that the PA would like to see the United States push Israel to agree to a proposition made by former prime minister Ehud Olmert over the release of Palestinian prisoners.
According to a report in Dubai-based news website Al Moheet, Erekat told Burns on Sunday in Ramallah that PA President Mahmoud Abbas had called on the US to work with "the current Israeli government to implement the [Olmert] deal."
Abbas mentioned the agreement with the Olmert government shortly after the implementations of the prisoner-swap agreement that secured the release of Gilad Schalit, according to a TIME report in October.
In the deal with Olmert, the Israeli government would release hundreds of Palestinian prisoners as a gesture ahead of peace talks.