ANT KATZ

Zuma and Abbas to meet

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According to the Presidency, Zuma will be hosting Abbas who was on a “working visit” to South Africa”. The two are scheduled to hold bilateral discussions which, says the Presidency, are expected to cover “a broad range of issues including the current initiatives aimed at resolving the Israeli-Palestine stand-off”.

Other related issues are the recently-postponed Paris Middle East Conference that was initially scheduled for May 30. Abbas has also been involved in significant diplomatic efforts led by Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi designed to organise a summit between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian leader.

On Tuesday, Abbas was in Istanbul, Turkey, where he addressed the first World Humanitarian Summit. Also at the Summit and riding on the crest of a building wave of diplomatic activity with that country, was Israel’s Director General of Foreign Affairs Dore Gold, who inaugurated the Israeli Pavilion at the Summit.

In 2014, at the height of the Gaza War, Zuma appointed former Minister Zola Skweyiya and former Deputy Minister Aziz Pahad as special envoys on the Middle East peace process.

Abbas’ visit is his third to South Africa in recent years. Of late South Africa has also controversially hosted Hamas and, most recently, Israel’s Dore Gold.

President Zuma’s spokesman, Nelson Kgwete, said that it was also expected that Abbas would brief Zuma “on efforts at Intra-Palestine reconciliation”, meaning infighting between PLO/PA and Hamas.