Jerusalem – A first meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas since Israel’s Gaza Strip pullout could take place next week, perhaps as early as Tuesday, an Israeli government official said Wednesday.
The official spoke just after Jordan’s King Abdullah II issued a statement from Amman saying the Palestinian and Israeli leaders would meet Tuesday to try to revive Mideast peacemaking. A meeting Sunday had been postponed because of a flareup in Israeli-Palestinian fighting.
The palace statement did not say where the meeting would take place or whether the king would attend.
It noted that Abdullah placed separate telephone calls to Sharon and Abbas earlier in the day.
The Israeli official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the timetable is not final, said Sharon’s senior adviser, Dov Weisglass, would meet with Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Friday to try to bring about a Sharon-Abbas summit.
Sharon and Abbas haven’t met since Israel pulled all of its settlers and troops from Gaza in an operation that was concluded in early September.
Their meeting Sunday was postponed after Palestinian rocket attacks on southern Israel provoked an Israeli military offensive in Gaza and the West Bank.
