Ehud Olmert accused Mahmoud Abbas of not honoring recent commitments. The Israeli prime minister said Sunday that the Palestinian Authority president had promised that an Israeli soldier held hostage in the Gaza Strip would be freed before the Palestinian Authority coalition government was formed, a promise that Abbas did not keep. “One cannot ignore the fact that the Palestinian Authority chairman has flagrantly violated a series of undertakings made to Israel, especially the undertaking that a Palestinian unity government would not be set up before the release of Gilad Shalit,” Olmert told the Cabinet on Sunday. “Obviously, all these things will not, in the near future, facilitate contacts between us and the Palestinian Authority.” Olmert’s comments came ahead of a flurry of foreign trouble-shooting in Israel and the Palestinian Authority. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice were in the region Sunday, with German Chancellor Angela Merkel expected to follow later in the week. “This week will abound with diplomatic activity,” Olmert said.
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