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Russia: Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to meet for talks in Moscow | Russia: Israeli and Palestinian leaders have agreed to meet for talks in Moscow |
(35 minutes later) | |
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have agreed in principle to meet in Moscow, in what would be their first face-to-face meeting in years. | |
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova confirmed that an agreement had taken place on Thursday, the Associated Press reported. | |
No date has been given for the meeting. “The most important thing is to pick the right timing,” Ms Zakharova added. | |
Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu exchanged a brief handshake at the global climate change conference in Paris last year, but have not held a public working meeting since 2010. | |
Mr Abbas said earlier this week that a meeting scheduled in Moscow had been postponed at Israel's request. | |
Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu agree on barely any issues, including the construction of Israeli settlements on land claimed by Palestinians, which means setting an agenda will be a difficult task. Any meeting at all is seen as progress, however, since US-brokered peace talks broke down in 2014. | |
The Moscow meeting points to Russia's growing influence in Middle Eastern affairs. | |
President Vladimir Putin has been vocal in his support for President Bashar Assad in the five-year-long Syrian civil war. | |
The Russian military has aided the Syrian government by providing fighter jets to assist in the fight against various rebel groups since last September. | |