A Palestinian delegation will reportedly visit Washington this month, ahead of Abbas’ expected meeting with Trump.
By: Barney Breen-Portnoy, The Algemeiner
A delegation of Palestinian Authority (PA) officials will travel to Washington later this month, in preparation for an expected upcoming White House meeting between US President Donald Trump and PA President Mahmoud Abbas, the Hebrew news site nrg reported on Thursday.
The report cited a Voice of Palestine radio interview given by PA Foreign Minister Riyad al-Maliki. According to nrg, Maliki said the delegation will meet with a number of US officials and discuss a range of issues.
Earlier this week, Maliki told the Bahrain News Agency, “The main goal here is to reach understandings that would make the president’s visit [to Washington] a success and that it will come out with positive results that would serve the Palestinian cause.”
During a phone call last month, Trump invited Abbas to visit the White House “in the near future.” The two leaders, according to a White House readout, talked about “ways to advance peace throughout the Middle East region, including a comprehensive agreement that would end the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
In his Voice of Palestine interview on Thursday, Maliki said the Palestinians were drawing up a diplomatic plan aimed at “exposing the Israeli policies in the occupied territories.”
Meanwhile, on Wednesday, Abbas said he was set to take “decisive steps” to end the divide between his Fatah party, which controls the Palestinian-administered territories of Judea and Samaria, and Hamas, the Islamist terrorist group that rules the Gaza Strip.