Netanyahu Answers Abbas Overture for Meeting

Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu responded on Monday to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s offer to meet with him, inviting the latter to Yerushalayim.

“I’m clearing my schedule this week. Any day he can come, I’ll be here,” Netanyahu told an an American Congressional delegation.

“A few days ago, I heard President Abbas say that if I’d invited him to meet, he’d come,” Netanyahu said before a meeting with Czech Foreign Minister Lubomír Zaorálek. “So, I’m inviting him again.”
Netanyahu added that he and Abbas have “a lot of things to discuss, but the first thing is ending the Palestinian campaign of incitement to murder Israelis.” Netanyahu said his door “is always open to those who want to pursue peace with Israel.”

During an interview with Israeli media last Thursday, Abbas said he had offered to meet Netanyahu. “I will meet with him, at any time.”
Last week, Abbas claimed he was working to stop Palestinian attacks on Israelis, and suggested the violence would stop if the defunct peace process resumes again.