Abbas in Cairo for talks with Sissi

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was scheduled to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo on Friday, according to Palestinian sources.

Abbas last met Sissi on May 9, when the two discussed regional diplomacy, the Hebrew language website NRG said, quoting the Palestinian and Egyptian media.

According to NRG, the Palestinian envoy to Egypt, Jamal al-Shobaki, said that Abbas was planning to “update Arab foreign ministers on recent developments in the Palestinian arena during a special session devoted to [this] issue.” Shobaki said that Abbas would hold several “important meetings” during his visit, including with the Egyptian foreign minister and the Arab League’s secretary general.

Abbas arrives in Cairo after visits to South Africa and Turkey, and he is expected on Saturday to attend the meeting of Arab League foreign ministers in Cairo.

The meeting between Abbas and Sissi and the Arab League session come as France is gearing up for a summit intended to renew peace talks. Israel says the French initiative will be fruitless so long as the Palestinians refuse to negotiate directly with Israel. The summit is scheduled for coming weeks, though a date has not yet been set.

Sissi earlier this month called for a renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians. The Egyptian president, together with US Secretary of State John Kerry and former Quartet envoy Tony Blair, was reportedly among foreign leaders who pushed for Zionist Union chair Isaac Herzog to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.

A report in the Palestinian news agency Ma’an on Tuesday claimed that a secret Israeli delegation flew to Cairo to meet with senior officials in the Egyptian ministries of foreign affairs and defense.

The delegation reportedly arrived in Cairo to prepare the ground for a meeting between Netanyahu and Sissi. NRG quoted unnamed sources in the know confirming that the Egyptian president and the Israeli prime minister will soon meet.