Netanyahu In Moscow for Talks with Putin
Published on: 30.1.2020Analysts Weigh in With Risks and Highlights
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was hosted by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Kremlin on Thursday. The discussion between the two leaders centered on the Trump Administration’s recently released “Deal of the Century” but before he returned to Israel Netanyahu also greeted Naama Issachar, an Israeli backpacker who received a presidential pardon from Putin earlier in the day after she was arrested in Moscow several months ago on drug smuggling charges as she was attempting to return home from a trip to India with 9 grams of marijuana in her luggage.
Elsewhere, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas continued to issue statements condemning the “Deal of the Century” including in a letter he sent to Netanyahu through intermediaries on Wednesday in which he said that “the plan is an American and Israeli abandonment of the Oslo Accords.” The letter also said that if the plan proceeds “the PA will consider itself free to break any and all agreements signed with Israel, including security coordination between the two sides.”
Earlier on Wednesday, Netanyahu said during an interview with Fox News that “the Palestinians should take the first step” in implementing the plan, adding that the Palestinian people “must be given a vision, which I think is what the president did. Once we define the direction… I think we can get there.” However, he added “Getting Hamas out of Gaza isn’t going to be easy. Assuming we have a peace agreement, then the two parts of where the Palestinians [live] will be connected. We have a way to get there, but the Palestinians should take the first step.”
“We are going to leave open the map in such a way that we will not contradict… the outline that the president put forward,” he explained. “We are going to maintain our policies. Israel will act according to what the plan signals. The Arab states… have said, ‘This is something you have to consider.’ I think this is an amazing achievement for President Trump…Trump is the best friend that Israel has ever had in the White House.”
“It is a great day for peace, for Israel, for the Palestinians, and for the world. Thank you, President Trump.”
Here are some videos offering some further analysis of the situation