Netanyahu refuses to attend peace summit in Russia with PA chairman Abbas and Russian President Putin

Israel National News

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said no to an official proposal by Russia to convene a summit meeting in Moscow in which Netanyahu, Palestinian Authority chairman Mahmoud Abbas and Russian President Vladimir Putin would have taken part.

Two years ago, Netanyahu rejected a similar Russian proposal, despite Abbas’ agreement to take part in such a meeting. At the same time, however, the political establishment said that Abbas only agreed to the meeting as long as it was theoretical and there was no possibility of carrying it out.

The proposal was presented to Netanyahu during his meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov this week. Lavrov told Netanyahu that recently President Putin had met with Abbas and heard from him explicit agreement to such a summit meeting.

Netanyahu explained to Lavrov that he would have been happy to hold such a meeting, but it would not meet with the approval of the American administration, which are working on its peace plan. He made it clear that Israel wanted to take advantage of the American mediation channel between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs before turning to other channels.

Earlier Thursday, an official in the White House said that the “Trilateral Deal” of the Trump administration would also include an economic plan to help resolve the Arab-Israeli conflict.

“Trump’s plan will be the most detailed one that has ever dealt with the conflict, and now we are making final corrections before it is presented,” the source said, speaking anonymously.