Olmert: I Made Condi Abstain on Gaza Vote

Israel’s prime minister says an urgent call to President Bush last week resulted in Condoleezza Rice changing her vote on a UN Gaza resolution, the New York Times reports, with Ehud Olmert adding that the secretary of State “was left pretty embarrassed.” Rice helped draft the measure urging peace, which passed 14-0 with the US abstaining; a State spokesman said that was always the plan.

Olmert told the story in a speech yesterday, reports the AP. “I said, ‘Get me President Bush on the phone.’ They said he was in the middle of giving a speech in Philadelphia. I said I didn’t care.” Rice later said she abstained in light of Egyptian-French peace efforts. The White House said today that Olmert's account is “inaccurate,” Reuters adds. (More Condoleezza Rice stories.)