Abbas calls Netanyahu to advance peace

The Palestinian president tells the Israeli prime minister that peace efforts should be advanced.

Benjamin Netanyahu was told both Israeli and Palestinian sides need to work for peace.

JERUSALEM // Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas today telephoned Benjamin Netanyahu for the first time since he became Israel's prime minister and said they should both advance peace efforts, Israeli officials said. Mr Abbas extended holiday greetings for the Jewish Passover festival, adding that "both sides needed to work for peace", a statement from the Israeli prime minister's office said. Mr Netanyahu, whose right-leaning government took office on March 31, said "he intended to resume" talks and co-operation with the Palestinians for the sake of promoting peace, the statement said. Israeli officials said it was the first contact between the two leaders since Mr Netanyahu became prime minister for the second time. He last held the post from 1996 to 1999.

Mr Netanyahu "recalled their past co-operation and conversations, and how he intended to resume this in the future in order to advance peace", said the statement. Senior Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said on Friday that Mr Abbas had made peace talks with Mr Netanyahu's cabinet conditional on it committing to US-brokered understandings reached at a 2007 Annapolis summit, and freezing Jewish settlement growth.

Mr Erekat's remarks followed comments last week by far-right Israeli foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman that the statehood talks launched at Annapolis were no longer valid. Mr Netanyahu himself has been more vague, saying his priority was to focus on economic and security issues instead of negotiating core issues such as statehood borders and the fate of Jerusalem and Palestinian refugees. Mr Netanyahu's stance could put him on a collision course with the administration of US President Barack Obama, who called this week for a Palestinian state alongside Israel as outlined in Annapolis, and said both sides needed to make compromises.

* Reuters