PA willing to participate in any peace initiative

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas's office said Monday that the PA is ready to participate in any peace initiative aimed at a "comprehensive and fair solution", following speculation of a meeting organized by Russia.

"We are ready to participate in any regional or international initiative with the objective of a comprehensive and fair solution," Abbas’s spokesman, Nabil Abu Rudeina, said in a statement quoted by the AFP news agency.

The statement comes amid talk of a possible meeting between Abbas and the Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu to be organized by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

In an interview published last week, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said Putin wanted to host an Israeli-Palestinian summit to revive the PA-Israeli peace talks.

Several days later, Netanyahu and Putin held a telephone conversation in which they discussed the ‘peace’ process, among other things.

However, a Kremlin spokesman clarified Monday there was "nothing concrete" yet on a meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu.

France has also been working on its own peace initiative and hopes to convene an international conference before the end of the year.

The PA strongly supports the French initiative, but Israel has rejected it, calling instead for direct negotiations.