Lapid Meets Senior PA Official

Foreign Minister Yair Lapid held the coalition’s latest official meeting with a senior Palestinian Authority official on Sunday, according to Ynet.

Lapid reportedly sat down with Hussein Al-Sheikh, who heads the General Authority of Civil Affairs at the PA, and is said to be close to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Al-Sheikh is in charge of civil and security coordination with Israel and is regarded as one of Abbas’s potential successors.

The report cites a Palestinian source saying that diplomatic issues were on the agenda.

Lapid said recently that he would meet with Palestinian officials but not for peace talks, as per the coalition agreement.

Sunday’s meeting would follow several that Abbas held with Defense Minister Benny Gantz and other center-left ministers in the current government. The Gantz meetings yielded a series of measures to shore up the chronically ailing PA economy.

Lapid’s office declined to comment.