Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet with Palestinian premier Salam Fayyad in the coming weeks, Israeli and Palestinian officials said on Wednesday. “Prime Minister Netanyahu will meet with Palestinian prime minister Fayyad,” the Israeli premier’s spokesman Ofir Gendelman said in a statement posted on his official Twitter feed.
He had initially said the meeting would take place next week, but later clarified that it would occur after the Jewish holiday of Passover, which begins at sundown on Friday and ends on April 13.
Palestinian officials confirmed the meeting and said Fayyad would hand Netanyahu a letter from Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas about the stalled peace process.
“A Palestinian delegation will take a letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu,” Nimr Hammad, an advisor to Abbas told AFP on Wednesday.
He said Fayyad would be joined by senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo and negotiator Saeb Erakat. Gendelman said Netanyahu would send his own letter to Abbas after the talks. “Prime minister’s envoy (Yitzhak) Molcho will deliver a letter from the prime minister to president Abbas following the meeting,” he wrote.