Lapid Meets Senior Palestinian Minister in Surprise Move

January 24, 2022

by: Elior Levy ~ Ynetnews

Monday, 24 January 2022 | Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Sunday met with a senior member of the Palestinian Authority [PA] and a close ally of Palestinian [Authority] President Mahmoud Abbas.

Hussein al Sheikh in his ministerial capacity oversees civilian and security coordination between the PA and Israel.

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett was advised of the meeting ahead of time, as was Defense Minister Benny Gantz.

Lapid was reported to have met earlier this month with Majid Faraj, the PA’s chief of intelligence.

The Foreign Ministry declined to comment on the meeting.

Palestinian sources said al-Sheikh hoped to bring up matters of policy concerning Israeli–Palestinian relations, among other things, during the meeting.

Israel’s coalition government is made up of parties on both sides of the political spectrum and has agreed to refrain from irreversible moves regarding the future of the West Bank [Judea and Samaria] and the resolution of the decades-long conflict with the Palestinians.

Hussein al Sheikh is considered a possible contender to replace Abbas as president and is seen as one of the stronger politicians in the Palestinian leadership.

Gantz hosted the Palestinian president at his home last month, a meeting that was followed by Israeli confidence-building measures that included an addition of hundreds of work-permits in Israel for Palestinians from the West Bank.

Al Sheikh, who was present at that meeting, said it was a last-ditch effort to prevent a crisis in the relations between Israel and the PA.

Posted on January 24, 2022

Source: (This article was originally published by Ynetnews on January 23, 2022. Time-related language has been modified to reflect our publication today. See original article at this link.)

Photo Credit: Haim Zach / Government Press Office (Israel)/Commons.wikimedia.org

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