Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak "never, ever" put Jerusalem on the negotiating table during the 15-day Middle East peace summit last month, Jerusalem’s Israeli mayor and parliament opposition member Ehud Olmert said Friday.
"Barak says that he never did," Olmert said in an exclusive interview with AFP.
Olmert said Barak had briefed him by phone on July 28th, three days after returning from the summit at Camp David near Washington where he had been meeting with Palestinian President Yasser Arafat and President Bill Clinton.
Olmert said Barak had reassured him in the phone conversation: "'Trust me that I never, ever, agreed to divide the city.'"
"He says that there was a proposition by the president which was adamantly rejected by Arafat," Olmert added.
In information leaking piecemeal from the trilateral summit, and in reports following its collapse, it appeared that Barak had been ready to agree to some form of limited Palestinian sovereignty in certain Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem.
These reports were overblown, said Olmert.
"I think that what actually happened was that Barak probably indicated to the president that if Arafat will agree (to the US proposal) he will consider it," Olmert said.
"In a way, he threw the ball to the other side, and the other side, instead of throwing the ball back to him, threw the ball out of the game.
"So maybe it is lucky for Barak. But, you see, it never materialized to the point where it became a real threat, a genuine development."
Since returning to Israel, Barak has watched his governing coalition disintegrate.
This week he barely survived a no confidence vote, had his candidate for Israel's presidency lost in what was seen as a parliamentary referendum on the prime minister's performance at Camp David, and suffered the resignation of his foreign minister.
"All these are reactions to his political moves," Olmert said. "He has a mandate to protect Jerusalem. This is the mandate that he asked for ... He does not have a mandate to negotiate a division of Jerusalem."
Olmert maintained that dividing Jerusalem was not in Palestinian interests.
"The absolute majority of the Palestinian inhabitants of east Jerusalem are anxious to remain in a united city under the sole sovereignty of Israel. We had over the years many indications that that is their preference," he said.
Olmert called Clinton's announcement last week that he was reviewing relocating the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem "extraordinary and surprising.” -- WEST HAMPTON BEACH, New York (AFP)
© 2000 Al Bawaba (www.albawaba.com)
