RAMALLAH: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is to meet on Sunday in Amman with US Secretary of State John Kerry, who is pushing for a renewal of peace talks, a Palestinian official said. “US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet President Abbas on Sunday in Amman,” the official said yesterday.
Israeli press reports said Kerry would arrive in Israel on Saturday night for talks with the leadership, but there was no confirmation from the office of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, whose spokesman refused to comment on the issue.
According to the Maariv daily, Kerry was planning to visit Jerusalem and Ramallah “once every two weeks” in what it said was partly a bid to “resuscitate” the Arab Peace Initiative. “Israel should therefore consider the advantages it may gain from such an initiative,” the paper said.
The Arab Peace Initiative, tabled in 2002 by Saudi Arabia and endorsed by the Arab League, proposed a normalisation of ties with Israel in return for its pullout from all lands occupied during the 1967 Six Day War.
AFP
