Obama to meet Abbas, Netanyahu

US President Barak Obama has invited the acting Palestinian Authority (PA) chief and the Israeli prime minister for separate meetings over indirect peace talks.

The White House announced on Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet Obama on Tuesday, while acting PA chief Mahmoud Abbas will visit the US in June, Reuters reported.

The meetings are regarded as an attempt by Washington to put the long-stalled indirect Israel-Palestine peace talks back on track.

On a Wednesday visit to al-Quds (Jerusalem), Obama’s Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel submitted the US president’s invitation to Netanyahu.

The aim of the visit is to discuss “shared security interests as well as … close cooperation in seeking peace between Israel and its neighbors,” Emanuel said.

Palestinians have conditioned the so-called “proximity talks” to a halt in Israel’s illegal settlement construction on the occupied Palestinian territories.