Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met yesterday, August 6 at the Jericho Intercontinental Hotel for the first in a series of bilateral meetings between the two sides. The meeting was reportedly held over two phases – a private meeting between the two leaders and a luncheon for the two teams. Later in Ramallah, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, who also attended the meeting, held a press conference, divulging the main points discussed in Jericho.

Erekat said the two leaders primarily agreed on holding a series of meetings leading up to the November summit to be held in Washington under the auspices of US President George W. Bush. He said Israel agreed to look into the return of Palestinians exiled during the Nativity Church standoff in 2002 who have been living in Gaza and abroad since then.

He also said the two sides discussed the file of wanted Palestinians and the removal of a number of West Bank checkpoints, which Israel has promised to resolve in the coming week.

While no concrete solutions were reached during the three-hour meeting, the Palestinians reportedly clarified to their Israeli counterparts that the focus of their peace efforts was the Arab Peace Initiative, which entails full Arab normalization with Israel in exchange for a complete Israeli withdrawal from all lands occupied in the 1967 war.

President Abbas also demanded from Olmert that Israel halt all settlement activity and all other efforts to create facts on the ground so as to allow for peace efforts to continue.

Israeli media sources have reported that Olmert plans to build on the former Israeli notion of a land swap in the context of a final solution with the Palestinians. Such a plan would entail that Israel offers land equal to 100 percent of the area within the 1967 borders in exchange for the five percent of land occupied by major settlement blocs, equivalent to five percent of West Bank land.

Olmert is yet to specify which areas would be offered in the case of a land swap, although some suggestions have included land in the Negev Desert as one option.

The two leaders also agreed to set up a joint ministerial committee. The Palestinian Authority is to be represented by Minister of Interior Abdel Razzaq Al Yehya. The two sides also discussed the resumed security cooperation between them. The Palestinians reportedly handed the Israelis a document detailing their activity in terms of arresting activists and gathering arms.