Israel must give up West Bank: Olmert

While little visible progress has been achieved since, Olmert expressed the conviction that “we are very close to reaching agreement.” He said that also applied to indirect negotiations with long time foe Syria which were relaunched in May after an eight-year hiatus, with Turkey acting as a go-between.

He made it clear peace would come at a price for both sides, with Israel giving up the annexed Golan Heights and Syria ending its current ties with Iran and no longer backing “the Hamas and the Al-Qaeda in Iraq.”

He warned however that there was no risk-free solution, without ruling out military confrontation in Syria in the coming years or renewed bloodshed in the West Bank.

“We don’t know, for example, what will happen in the Palestinian Authority after January 9, 2009,” he said.

On the one hand, Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, whose term ends that day, could remain in power “with some manipulation,” he said.

“But we believe that there is a very great danger that there will be a bloody clash, which will thwart any possibility of continuing negotiations and perhaps will force us to be involved in the confrontation, with bloodshed, with everything that could happen as a result.”

Olmert formally submitted his resignation on September 21 amid deep political turmoil over a series graft allegations that caused police to recommend criminal indictments.

He will remain interim premier until a new government is formed. The governing Kadima party’s newly elected leader, Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni is scrambling to put together a coalition in order to avert snap elections that could put the right-wing Likud party in power.