Abbas to meet with Egyptian president on Monday

Mahmoud Abbas will meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi in Cairo on Monday with ties strained between them and ahead of the Palestinian leader’s talks with Donald Trump in Washington.

The Palestinian president is to meet Trump at the White House for the first time in early April, a Palestinian official said on condition of anonymity.

An Arab League summit is also set for March 29 in Jordan, and Abbas’s discussions with Sissi are likely to touch on the meeting.

The meetings come as the American president’s administration wades into the decades-old Israeli-Palestinian conflict, with one of his top advisers holding talks with both Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week.

Jordanian King Abdullah II is also reportedly to meet Trump in April. Abbas spoke to Trump by phone earlier this month.

— AFP