Olmert to Abbas: You're not supposed to meet killers / Roni Sofer
Prime Minister Olmert reprimands Palestinian leader over his meeting with released murderer Samir Kuntar; Abbas requests another prisoner release but Olmert's associates say PM made no such pledge
Samir Kuntar says in a Tuesday statement that the meeting last week in Beirut was in response to a "direct request" by Abbas. An aide to Abbas denies that, saying Kuntar requested the meet.
The aide is speaking on condition of anonymity because he is not authorized to talk to the press.
Kuntar was convicted of killing three people in a grisly attack in Israel in 1979, including a little girl. Israel traded Kuntar and other prisoners for the bodies of two of its soldiers in a swap
with Lebanon's Hizbullah
group.
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert
told Abbas at a summit Sunday that he was "upset" by the meeting. Abbas' response was inaudible.