Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Barak, Abbas Hold Secret Meeting

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak reportedly met secretly with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the eve of peace talks.

Barak held a secret meeting with Abbas Sunday night in Amman, Israeli media reported, hours after meeting with Jordan’s King Abdullah at his palace. Barak reportedly returned to Israel to brief Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in between the meetings.

Barak and Abbas reportedly discussed an Israeli easing of security measures in the West Bank and Barak reiterated Israel’s commitment to the success of the talks opening in Washington Wednesday.

Netanyahu left Israel Tuesday morning for Washington. He is scheduled to meet with President Obama Wednesday before attending a dinner with Obama, Abbas, Abdullah, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Quartet envoy Tony Blair. Netanyahu is also scheduled to meet separately with each attendee.

On Thursday, Netanyahu and Abbas will open peace talks, joined by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.