Abbas to meet Sharon late in June
Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon will hold talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the third week of June, officials on both sides have said.
“This summit will be at the beginning of the third week of this month,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saib Uraiqat said on Wednesday after talks with Sharon’s chief of staff Dov Weisglass in Jerusalem.
Sharon‘s office said the two would meet on 21 June, a date which was agreed in talks between Uraiqat, Weisglass and Sharon‘s special adviser Shalom Turjeman.
Ahead of the meeting, preparatory talks would be held to discuss implementation of the agreements reached at the joint Sharm el-Sheikh summit on 8 February, when Sharon and Abbas last met, the statement said.
The talks would also include discussions about coordinating Israel‘s withdrawal of all troops and Jewish settlers from the Gaza Strip in an operation due to start in mid-August.
Uraiqat said he and Weisglass agreed to reactivate all joint working committees established after the February summit, including those dealing with Palestinian prisoners and security transfers within the West Bank.