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RAMALLAH, West Financial institution — Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Friday obtained a name from Israel’s caretaker prime minister, Yair Lapid, the primary such dialog between Abbas and an Israeli premier in years.
The decision got here amid a uncommon flurry of high-level Israeli-Palestinian contacts forward of President Joe Biden’s go to to Israel and the occupied West Financial institution subsequent week. The talks targeted on calming tensions and coordinating safety forward of the go to.
An announcement from Lapid’s workplace stated he spoke with Abbas about “the continuation of cooperation and the necessity to guarantee quiet and calm.” Hussein al-Sheikh, a senior Abbas aide, stated Lapid congratulated Abbas on Eid al-Adha, a Muslim vacation beginning Saturday, and “mentioned the newest state of affairs briefly,” with out elaborating.
Abbas obtained Israeli Protection Minister Benny Gantz at his headquarters within the occupied West Financial institution city of Ramallah on Thursday and likewise spoke to Israeli President Isaac Herzog by telephone.
The peace course of collapsed greater than a decade in the past. Excessive-level conferences between Israeli and Palestinian leaders are uncommon and have a tendency to concentrate on day-to-day financial and safety coordination.
Gantz met with Abbas a few occasions final yr and introduced measures to enhance financial circumstances within the occupied West Financial institution.
Lapid and Gantz, each centrists, are serving in a caretaker capability forward of elections deliberate for Nov. 1, through which non secular and nationalist events that take a tough line towards the Palestinians are anticipated to retain their majority within the Knesset, Israel’s parliament.
Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority, which administers elements of the West Financial institution beneath interim peace agreements reached within the Nineties. He’s deeply unpopular amongst Palestinians, largely due to his shut safety coordination with Israel.
Biden is anticipated to satisfy with high Israeli and Palestinian leaders subsequent week.
The Palestinians search a state within the occupied West Financial institution, east Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip, territories Israel captured within the 1967 conflict.
Israel annexed east Jerusalem in a transfer not acknowledged internationally and views your complete metropolis as its capital. It withdrew troopers and settlers from Gaza in 2005 however imposed a crippling blockade when the Islamic militant group Hamas seized energy from Abbas’ forces two years later, limiting his authority to elements of the West Financial institution.
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