PMs of Israel, PA due to meet Tuesday and exchange letters

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad were scheduled to meet Tuesday afternoon to exchange official letters, setting out the sides’ respective positions and requirements for a resumption of negotiations.

The meeting was announced last week, and would be the first high-level contact since official talks in Jordan broke down in January.

Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Tuesday morning that the meeting might be called off because of a dispute over money transfer issues between Israel and the PA. Fayyad has been widely reported to be unhappy about attending the meeting, the first between the two prime ministers in 18 months. But the Prime Minister’s Office said later Tuesday that the meeting was still scheduled.

Fayyad was to carry a missive from PA President Mahmoud Abbas that includes demands for Israel to cease building across the Green Line, release all prisoners and agree to the establishment of a Palestinian state on the 1967 borders with possible small adjustments.

According to the text of the letter obtained earlier this week by The Times of Israel, if Israel fails to meet those demands, Abbas vows, the Palestinians will “seek the full and complete implementation of international law” to deal with Israel’s presence “as occupying power in all of the occupied Palestinian territory.” The situation as it stands, he states in the letter, “cannot continue.”

Haaretz reported that the meeting would include senior PA negotiator Saeb Erekat and PLO Secretary General Yasser Abed Rabbo. Netanyahu had last week sought direct talks with Abbas, who rejected the idea.

Netanyahu was expected to give Fayyad a letter for Abbas outlining Israel’s positions on borders, security and parameters for a final settlement.

During a meeting with Arab diplomats in Sri Lanka, Abbas said he believed Netanyahu would respond to his letter in two weeks, expressing hope that the response would be positive, enabling a resumption of direct talks.

Abbas asserted that, in the two sides cannot agree on terms for new talks, the US administration would offer up a plan of its own to resume negotiations because it didn’t want the PA to take the issue of Palestinian statehood to the UN General Assembly.