Palestinian PM Fayyad withdraw his participation in the Jerusalem meeting hours before it took place; in joint statement both sides say are 'committed to achieving peace.'
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu received a letter from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday, detailing the PA's demands regarding the resumption of Middle East peace talks.The missive was delivered by a Palestinian delegation headed by chief PA negotiator Saeb Eerekat during a meeting at the Prime Minister's Residence in Jerusalem.
Earlier in the day, it was announced that Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad won't head the Palestinian delegation scheduled to meet Netanyahu later in the day. Speaking to the media, Erekat confirmed that Fayyad will not attend the meeting, adding that he is on his way to meet Netanyahu together with West Bank intelligence chief Majed Faraj.
The premier was accompanied by his envoy to talks with the Palestinians, Issac Molho.
According to sources, the meeting lasted 80 minutes, during which the premier went over the letter's five pages, written in English.
A preliminary inspection of its content indicated that it did not include any new messages, but that it also did not spell out explicit threats to take disassemble the PA.
The sides agreed that Molho will arrive in Ramallah in two weeks time in order to pass Israel's written response to the missive to Abbas.
In addition, at the end of Tuesday's meeting, the two sides published a joint announcement, according to which "Israel and the Palestinian Authority are committed to achieving peace."
"Both sides hope that the exchange of letters will help find the way to promote peace," the statement said.
Fayyad's cancellation caused quite a bit of embracement on the Palestinian side in the last 24 hours. In the last two weeks Abbas publically announced that Fayyad would head the Palestinian delegation, in order to, among other reasons, to emphasize the importance the PA gives to the missive.
However, Fayyad objected to the exchange of letters with Israel, since he believed it would not amount to anything.
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