JERUSALEM (AFP) — A senior lawmaker from the ruling Kadima party denounced outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert's call for major concessions to the Palestinians, saying he went too far.
"Mr Olmert's remarks on the necessity of a territorial retreat from almost all the Palestinian territories go far beyond our positions of principle and are aligned with those of the extreme left," Tzahi Hanegbi, chairman of the parliamentary foreign affairs and defence committee, said on public radio.
He does not believe Olmert, in the time remaining to him, can reach an agreement with the Palestininians which would be binding on his successor.
"The party has never held a proper debate on the red lines not to cross in terms of territorial concessions but I think that they would be a long way from what Mr Olmert proposed," Hanegbi said.
Olmert told Yediot Aharonot daily in an interview published on Monday that Israel must give up almost the entire occupied West Bank including east Jerusalem as the price for peace with the Palestinians.
He submitted his resignation on September 21 following graft allegations that caused police to recommend criminal charges. He will remain interim premier until a new government is formed.
Hanegbi spoke on the day French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner began a two-day visit to the region with the aim of reviving the peace process ahead of the year-end deadline for an agreement.
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