Washington, May 28: Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas will visit the White House on June 9, a US official said Thursday, in a trip that will come one week after Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu is due to hold talks here.
US President Barack Obama “will welcome Palestinian Authority president Mahmud Abbas to the White House on June 9,” Obama’s press secretary Robert Gibbs said in a statement.
“The president looks forward to reviewing with president Abbas the progress so far in Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks, and how the United States can work with the parties to transition to direct talks.”
Gibbs said the leaders “will also discuss our continuing effort to work cooperatively to develop the institutions that can advance the aspirations of the Palestinian people, and support the establishment of a Palestinian state.”
On Tuesday Obama holds talks with Prime Minister Netanyahu, as the United States ramps up its Mideast peace mediation efforts following months of high tensions between staunch allies Washington and Israel.
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel on Wednesday handed Netanyahu a personal invitation from the US president “for a working meeting to discuss both our shared security interests as well as our close cooperation in seeking peace between Israel and its neighbors.”
Obama and Netanyahu last held a one-on-one meeting in March in an extraordinary encounter between leaders of the two nations, during which Netanyahu was deprived of the trappings granted to foreign leaders.
The two sides were in the middle of a rare public row over Israeli settlement building, which Washington said harmed its efforts to get proximity talks underway between Israel and the Palestinians.
The last round of direct negotiations between the two sides collapsed in December 2008 when Israel launched a devastating war on the Gaza Strip in a bid to halt Palestinian rocket fire aimed at Israeli towns.
Israel and the Palestinians embarked on a round of US-brokered indirect negotiations on May 9 as Washington presses for a resumption of peace efforts.
Last week, both Netanyahu and Abbas met US envoy George Mitchell as part of those proximity talks.
The indirect negotiations were first agreed to in March but the initiative collapsed within days when Israel announced plans to build 1,600 settler homes in east Jerusalem.
The Palestinians eventually agreed to enter the talks after receiving US assurances that the project would be frozen.
–Agencies