Report: Olmert met secretly with Saudi

[tocqueville]

By RAMIT PLUSHNICK-MASTI, Associated Press Writer
43 minutes ago

JERUSALEM - 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.

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."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060925/ap_on_re_mi_ea/israel_saudi_arabia

[WCGreen]

1. October Surprise......

[acmavm]

2. If so, only a temporary truce. Olmert never deals honestly with anyone.

Not that the Saudi's are the poster children for honesty either.

[PCIntern]

3. You have a point...

Politicians the world over are known for their forthrightness and transparent behavior at all times. The exception to that rule are the Israeli politicians who often do not answer questions directly. Shame on them. Of course, it is possible, you point out so accurrately, that Arab Governments occasionally slip and dissemble. But it is much more likely that they are just having a 'reaction formation' to the Israelis.


:sarcasm: :sarcasm:
:sarcasm: :sarcasm:

[onager]

4. A funny thing happened in Egypt recently...(sort of OT)

(For those who don't know, I've spent the past year+ working in Egypt. This seems to fit here, sort of.)

To great fanfare, the Egyptian Parliament recently announced it was "liberalizing" Egypt's draconian press laws.

Reporters would no longer be jailed immediately for criticizing politicians! Wow! (With very few exceptions, the Egyptian media is firmly under the thumb of the government.)

But the new, liberal Press Law contained a couple of big zingers in the fine print.

The most hilarious: Egyptian journalists would not be allowed to criticize "foreign heads of state."

One newspaper editorial innocently asked: "Does that mean we can't criticize Ehud Olmert?"

:rofl: