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Netanyahu in letter to Abbas: Israeli unity cabinet is an opportunity to restart negotiations
The national unity government in Israel has created a new opportunity to move the peace process ahead, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu wrote to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in a letter sent on Saturday night.
Netanyahu’s letter to Abbas was delivered to PA headquarters in Ramallah by his special envoy Yitzhak Molcho, who also met with Abbas for 90 minutes. Following the meeting the two issued a joint statement saying that Israel and the PA are obligated to achieve peace, and that the parties hope the exchange of letters between Netanyahu and Abbas would contribute to this end.
Molcho’s meeting follows an earlier visit three weeks ago by PA chief negotiator Saeb Erekat and the head of the Palestinian intelligence Majed Faraj, who met with Netanyahu to deliver a letter from Abbas. In that letter, Abbas accused Netanyahu of weakening the PA and set out parameters for the stalled talks to resume.
A source that saw the letter that Netanyahu sent to Abbas, cited in Haaretz, said it included an official pledge by the PM, for the first time in an official state document, to establish a demilitarised Palestinian state in keeping with the principle of a two-state solution.
Abbas yesterday met with the Palestine Liberation Organisation executive committee and the Fatah central committee with regard to Netanyahu’s letter. After the meeting the PLO executive committee released a statement that said Netanyahu’s letter contained no clear answers to essential issues, including a halt to construction in the settlements and East Jerusalem, recognition of the 1967 borders and the release of prisoners.
Despite Palestinian disappointment with the letter, it was not reject it outright. The Palestinian leadership will now decide its next move after consulting with Arab countries, Abbas said on Sunday at the central committee meeting.
The US is pressing Abbas to use the letters as a means of moving toward direct talks with Israel. Washington would reportedly like to see a resumption of the talks between Molcho and Erekat, which took place earlier in the year in Amman, under the patronage of King Abdullah of Jordan.