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Abbas to meet senior Israeli official for first time in years

27 June 2012 00:51 (UTC +04:00)

Baku-APA. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet Israeli Vice-Premier Shaul Mofaz on Sunday, the first such high-level meeting in years, a Palestinian official said on Tuesday, APA reports quoting Xinhua.

The meeting will center on the prospect of resuming the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks that have been stalled since 2010, the official told Xinhua on condition of anonymity.

The two leaders will meet either in Jerusalem or in the West Bank city of Jericho, the official added.

Mofaz, head of the centrist Kadima party, joined the coalition led by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last month. Since then, he has been urging a meeting with the Palestinian president.

Abbas will see if Mofaz has any new plans for reviving the peace negotiations, which broke down over disputes on the Jewish settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.

Hanan Ashrawi, a member of the Palestinian Liberation Organization’s Executive Committee, said the meeting will not be counted as a new round of peace negotiations, since Abbas has set the conditions for restarting the talks, which include releasing the prisoners held by Israel since before 1994 and lifting the arms embargo against the Palestinian National Authority.