Kerry Meets Abbas For Peace Efforts: Abbas Plan For Israel To Withdraw From Judea And Samaria

Kerry Meets Abbas, Discusses Peace Efforts

Palestinian Authority (PA) Chairman Mahmoud Abbas met on Sunday with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in Cairo, following the international donor's conference for Gaza, the Bethlehem-based Ma'an news agency reported.

The two discussed international efforts for rebuilding Gaza and reviving the Israeli-PA peace process, according to the report.

Other officials were present at the meeting as well, including chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat, Abbas’s spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh, the head of the Palestinian Authority's central intelligence, Majid Farraj, and the PA’s Ambassador to Cairo Jamal al-Shoubaki.

AFP reported earlier that in his meeting with Abbas, Kerry was expected to try to dissuade him from seeking further recognition of the PA at the United Nations, including joining the International Criminal Court.

While in Cairo, Kerry is expected to call on Israel and the PA to resume peace talks, even though the last round he initiated failed in April when the PA signed a unity deal with the Hamas terror group.

Abbas, for his part, has announced a plan to ask the United Nations to impose a deadline for Israel to withdraw from Judea and Samaria.

Abbas’s move, which he plans to carry out through a resolution at the UN Security Council, is a unilateral move which is in direct violation of the Oslo Accords.

The draft resolution will reportedly call for Israel to “end the occupation” by November of 2016.

The move has been backed by Russia, as its deputy foreign minister announced on Sunday.

In 2012, the PA unilaterally turned to the United Nations and received recognition as a non-member observer state by the General Assembly.

Since then, the PA has threatened several times that if peace talks fail, it would turn to international institutions and seek to sue Israel in the International Criminal Court.