Olmert: US agreed to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees

At Geneva Initiative conference, former PM says during his tenure Washington agreed to accept Palestinian refugees in framework of permanent Israeli-Palestinian peace deal. Palestinian source: We wanted Israel to absorb hundreds of thousands.


Ehud Olmert said that during his tenure as prime minister he had reached an agreement with the Americans for them to absorb 100,000 Palestinian refugees as part of a peace deal, adding that he struck a deal with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas according to which Israel would absorb "a minimal amount" of refugees.

"The numbers discussed were below 20,000, but this would require and end to the conflict and a Palestinian announcement that they would not make any more demands," Olmert told a Geneva Initiative conference Sunday evening. 
"If we had reached an agreement, it would have changed the map of the world and the entire Middle East. We are not to blame. If there is no agreement, it's because the Palestinian side was not prepared to take the extra step that we made," Olmert said.

"I suggested that the refugee issue be resolved in the framework of the Arab peace initiative. I'm glad the current government is talking about the Road Map, which states that one of the cornerstone of peace is the Arab initiative" the former prime minister said.
Olmert claimed the Obama administration is not hostile towards Israel, saying, "There is no difference between (former US President George W.) Bush's positions and (Barack) Obama's positions.
"Obama would have been very pleased if the proposals presented by the current (Israeli) government would have been the same as those presented by us (Olmert's government)," he said.