Mahmoud Abbas meets Obama in Washington

Acting Palestinian Authority (PA) chief Mahmoud Abbas has met with US President Barack Obama, amid calls by Washington to have the deadline for the talks between the PA and Israel extended.

Abbas and Obama met at the white House on Monday, two weeks after the US president met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to convince him to agree on a framework to extend the talks beyond the April 29 deadline.

White House Spokesman Jay Carney said that the US president’s message to Abbas would be consistent with the one he gave to Netanyahu, referring to the Washington demand to have the deadline extended.

Obama will “commend” Abbas on the “tough decisions” he has made so far, Carney also said.

“He will speak of the need to establish a framework for negotiations going forward and the need – as that takes place, for additional tough decisions to be taken,” he added.

On March 13, Abbas said that he could not assess the framework, as no such thing had been yet presented to him.

“We have never discussed prolonging the negotiations at all, nor was it offered to us,” he said.

The Palestinian Authority resumed the US-mediated negotiations with the Tel Aviv regime in July 2013.

Since the resumption of the direct talks, Palestinians have objected to a number of issues, including the Israeli regime’s illegal settlement expansion in the occupied Palestinian territories.

Source: PressTV