Report: PM prevented Peres-Abbas meeting

A Palestinian source told the newspaper Al-Sharq Al-Awsat that Fatah Central Committee member Saeb Erekat scheduled a secret meeting between President Shimon Peres and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

According to the report, the meeting was cancelled at the last minute.

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The source told the London-based newspaper that Abbas had set out on a trip to Amman last week to meet with Peres away from the eye of the media, but Peres called the meeting off because Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu failed to give him a message or any new ideas that can be conveyed to the Palestinian leader.

The meeting was reportedly scheduled to take place last Thursday. Peres's office refused to comment on the report.

Netanyahu told the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Israel was still aiming for direct negotiations. "Abbas has made a strategic decision to go to the UN, in almost any case. We don't envision a scenario in which he doesn't do this," he said.

"Abbas is going to get things there without a peace agreement, so he has decided to go for it. We are working to ensure a US veto at the Security Council, but the UN decision will only harden the Palestinian demands to a point no Israeli government will be able to accept. This will widen gaps instead of narrowing them. It will not bring peace but push it away."

In a recent discussion held at the UN Security Council, Palestinian observer Riyad Mansour called on the UN to recognize a Palestinian state. He said that the time has come to end the occupation, before bursting into tears. Israel's Ambassador to the UN Ron Prosor warned that the Palestinian way of bypassing peace talks will lead to frustration and violence.

Elior Levy is Ynet's Palestinian affairs correspondent

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