Putin and Abbas (archive)
Putin and Abbas (archive)Reuters

Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas will reportedly visit Moscow in May, the Ma’an news agency reported Thursday, citing the PA’s envoy to Russia Abd al-Hafith Nawfal said on Wednesday.

Nawfal was quoted as having said that Abbas would discuss the Israel-Arab peace process with Russian officials, as well as the United States’ stance on the conflict.

Russia has expressed an interest in mediating Israel-Palestinian Authority peace talks which have been frozen for more than two years.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi said several months ago that Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted to host an Israeli-Palestinian summit to revive the talks.

Several days later, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Putin held a telephone conversation in which they discussed the peace process, among other things, though a Kremlin spokesman later clarified there was "nothing concrete" yet on a meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu.

Most recently, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov said his country is waiting for Israeli and Palestinian Arab proposals on holding a direct meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in statement on Wednesday that Putin had invited both Abbas and Netanyahu to meet with him in Moscow to break the stalemate in the peace process, but did not indicate whether such a meeting has been scheduled.

The PA refuses direct negotiations with Israel and has instead chosen to impose preconditions on such talks.