Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Israel cannot meet a Syrian demand to commit in advance of peace negotiations to withdraw from all Syrian territory captured in the 1967 Middle East war.
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Syria was setting an "impossible threshold" for peace talks by demanding Israel commit to withdraw fully from the occupied Golan Heights before negotiations resume.
Israel has rejected a Syrian demand that it withdraw from the Golan Heights it has occupied since 1967 before peace talks can resume between the two countries, public radio reported on Saturday.
JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israel will have to withdraw from "many areas" in the occupied West Bank, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks broadcast on Saturday, part of a drive by Middle East power brokers to resume peace efforts.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert of Israel also agreed to grant amnesty to 178 members of the Al Aksa Martyrs Brigades if they pledged to stop attacking Israel.
Israel released 255 Palestinian prisoners on Friday as part of a series of goodwill gestures designed to bolster Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in his standoff against Hamas.
Olmert said Israel was ready to withdraw from the Golan. "Certainly we will also have to make concessions," he said at a collective farm in northern Israel.
Source: Reuters JERUSALEM, July 21 (Reuters) - Israel will have to withdraw from "many areas" in the occupied West Bank, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said in remarks broadcast on Saturday, part of a drive by ...
Israel on Friday freed more than 250 Palestinian prisoners, who flashed victory signs to a West Bank heroes' welcome, in a move promoted to bolster moderate president Mahmud Abbas.
Source: Reuters JERUSALEM, July 21 (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said Syria was setting an "impossible threshhold" for peace talks by demanding Israel commit to withdraw fully from the ...