PA said to assemble new peace talks team at US behest

The Palestinian Authority has assembled a new team of negotiators with the encouragement of the United States for renewed peace talks with Israel, according to a television report, as a new Israeli government begins work.

Citing what it describes as a “senior official in Ramallah,” the West Bank city where the Palestinian Authority is based, Israel’s Channel 12 news says the PA was set to demand to extend its authority in the West Bank, as part of what the network said would be talks brokered by US President Joe Biden’s administration.

The report says the US had already begun working on the matter before Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was sworn in on Sunday as part of a new power-sharing government with Foreign Minister Yair Lapid, replacing now-opposition leader Benjamin Netanyahu.