Olmert secretly meets with senior Saudi official
Something's not Kosher in the Kingdom.
The Madman of Tel-Aviv not only purportedly met with a senior Saudi official (if not King Abdullah himself), he allegedly gave his royal majesty two thumbs up.
An Israeli newspaper reported Monday that Prime Minister Ehud Olmert secretly met with a senior Saudi Arabian official to discuss Iran's nuclear program and peace between Israel and the Palestinians.We all know what kind of people get straight A's from Olmert.
The daily Yediot Ahronot quoted an unspecified number of anonymous Israeli officials as saying that Olmert met with King Abdullah "10 days ago." It described other officials as hinting that the talks were with a senior official close to the king. None of the officials disclosed the location of the purported meeting, or what was supposed to have been said, according to the paper.
Saudi Arabia, which has NO OFFICIAL diplomatic ties with Israel, has been trying to revive a regional peace initiative it presented in 2002. Israel rejected the plan at the time, but Olmert has indicated he might be more open than his predecessor, Ariel Sharon.
When asked by Yediot last week if Israel had secret contacts with Saudi Arabia, Olmert said: "I do not have to answer every question."
Israeli Cabinet Minister Gideon Ezra refused to confirm or deny Monday's report.
"I know what I read in the newspaper," Ezra told Israel Radio. "I think this is the correct way to respond ... every extra word about these issues is unnecessary."
Yediot first reported last week that Israel and Saudi Arabia had been holding secret talks since fighting erupted in July between Israel and Hezbollah guerrillas in Lebanon.
Israel and the United States say Iran is trying to produce nuclear weapons. Tehran insists its nuclear program is for peaceful purposes.
Saudi Arabia 's peace initiative called for a full Israeli withdrawal from lands it captured in the 1967 Mideast war in exchange for normalization and relations with all Arab countries. It was rejected by Sharon outright but Olmert struck a different tone in the interview with Yediot last week.
"I am very impressed with different processes and statements that are connected to Saudi Arabia, some that have been stated publicly and others as well. I am very impressed with King Abdullah's wisdom and sense of responsibility," Olmert was quoted as saying.
posted by qrswave @ Monday, September 25, 2006
3 Comments:
qrswave,
I don't like the smell of this. Perhaps it has more to do with us than Iran. We are in serious trouble, and I don't trust the Israeli's nor anyone else at this moment. Who knows?
Cyclone
I'm under the impression that the Saudi cabal wouldn't mind seeing a weakening of the Shia, long-term I suspect Amerisrael is setting both sides up and destroying US in the process. The North American Union should show that it's not just the middle-east they're trying to restructure.
This just in:
Saudi Arabia has rejected as "fabricated" reported contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials, including a purported meeting between Israel's Premier Ehud Olmert and King Abdullah.
"The news story circulated by Israeli and Qatari media recently over contacts between Saudi and Israeli officials is utterly false," the SPA news agency quoted a foreign ministry official as saying Tuesday.
"The story is completely fabricated," added the official who was not named.
Israel's mass-selling paper Yediot Ahranot reported Monday that Prime Minister Olmert had held an unprecedented meeting recently with an "extremely" senior figure in the Saudi royal house.
It quoted an official as saying that the Saudi figure was King Abdullah himself.
Al-Jazeera pan-Arab news channel -- based in Qatar which has tense relations with neighbouring Saudi Arabia -- had also broadcast the report.
Olmert himself poured cold water on the report on Monday, telling the Y-net news website: "I did not meet with the Saudi king and I did not meet with any element which should have caused a sensation in the press."
Last week, Yediot reported that Israel and Saudi Arabia had been conducting secret negotiations, saying contacts had begun during the July-August 34-day war in Lebanon between Israel and Shiite militant group Hezbollah.
The Saudi official quoted by SPA said that "the kingdom plays its national and (Arab) nationalistic role clearly and transparently" and does not have "undeclared policies".
"Its position (on) the Palestinian issue was defined in the (Saudi) peace initiative which was adopted in the Arab summit in Beirut in 2002," he added.
Under the Saudi initiative, the Arab world would normalise relations with Israel in exchange for a withdrawal from all land occupied since 1967 and a negotiated solution to the Palestinian refugee issue.
It's not that I believe the Israeli press, but I can't figure out what they have to gain by fabricating this story?
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