Prime Minister Benjamin will not meet with Pope Francis I this week, a diplomatic source told the French news agency AFP Sunday.
Last Wednesday, Netanyahu’s office issued a statement announcing that the prime minister would be meeting with the pope at the Vatican this Wednesday and separately with Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome to discuss nuclear talks with Iran and the ongoing peace talks with the Palestinians.
However, the AFP source said that there were no plans for the meeting, pointing out that meetings with the pope typically had to be scheduled further in advance.
Netanyahu’s office declined a request for a comment.
The meeting would have been Netanyahu’s first with the current pope, who met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas last Thursday at the Vatican and with President Shimon Peres in April. Netanyahu met with the previous pope, Benedict XVI, in 2009, as well as with Pope John Paul II in 1997.
Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition
by email and never miss our top stories
By signing up, you agree to the
terms
Abbas and Peres both invited the pontiff to Israel and the Palestinian territories, and Francis has said he would like to visit the Middle East.
Israel’s Channel 2 reported last Sunday that the pope had scheduled a trip for March, but the Vatican has yet to confirm that that’s the case.
It's not (only) about you.
Supporting The Times of Israel isn’t a transaction for an online service, like subscribing to Netflix. The ToI Community is for people like you who care about a common good: ensuring that balanced, responsible coverage of Israel continues to be available to millions across the world, for free.
Sure, we'll remove all ads from your page and you'll unlock access to some excellent Community-only content. But your support gives you something more profound than that: the pride of joining something that really matters.
Join the Times of Israel Community
Join our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this
You're a dedicated reader
We’re really pleased that you’ve read X Times of Israel articles in the past month.
That’s why we started the Times of Israel - to provide discerning readers like you with must-read coverage of Israel and the Jewish world.
So now we have a request. Unlike other news outlets, we haven’t put up a paywall. But as the journalism we do is costly, we invite readers for whom The Times of Israel has become important to help support our work by joining The Times of Israel Community.
For as little as $6 a month you can help support our quality journalism while enjoying The Times of Israel AD-FREE, as well as accessing exclusive content available only to Times of Israel Community members.
Thank you,
David Horovitz, Founding Editor of The Times of Israel
Join Our Community
Join Our Community
Already a member? Sign in to stop seeing this