Livni meets with Abbas for first time since talks collapsed
Netanyahu knew in advance about London contacts, though TV report quotes unnamed sources saying he’s fuming
Israel’s chief peace negotiator Tzipi Livni met Thursday night with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in London.
It was the first meeting between the PA president and a senior Israeli official since peace talks collapsed last month. The encounter came on the heels of separate meetings, in London, between the two and US Secretary of State John Kerry.
Livni stressed to Abbas on Thursday the gravity of his having established a unity government between his Fatah party and Hamas, according to Channel 2 News. In the wake of the unity pact, Israel’s key security cabinet, of which Livni is a member, voted unanimously to suspend negotiations with the PA, saying Israel could not hold peace talks with a government supported by Hamas, an Islamic terrorist organization committed to Israel’s destruction.
Livni’s office stated later Friday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu knew in advance of the meeting.
Channel 2 commentator Amnon Abramowitz said, however, that unidentified sources in Jerusalem were saying that the prime minister “is furious” with Livni over her initiative.
Kerry met Wednesday with Abbas and Thursday with Livni, just weeks after the top US diplomat’s relentless bid to broker a peace treaty came screeching to a halt.
American officials said that the meeting between Kerry and Livni was unplanned, and that it was spontaneously put together since both parties happened to be in London.
Livni is in London for a previously scheduled trip, and US officials have been keen to downplay any hopes of a breakthrough in the stymied peace process.
Kerry coaxed the Israelis and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table in July 2013 after a three-year hiatus, and both sides agreed to keep talking for nine months. That period expired at the end of April, and the talks collapsed with each side blaming the other for major breaches of the negotiating agreements.
AFP contributed to this report.
The Times of Israel Community.