Mahmoud Abbas
Mahmoud AbbasFlash 90

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 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 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 Palestinians strongly support the French initiative, but Israel has rejected it, calling instead for direct negotiations.

Peace efforts have been at a standstill since a U.S.-led initiative collapsed in April 2014 when the PA unilaterally joined international organizations in breach of the conditions of the talks.

The last substantial public meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu is thought to have been held in 2010, though there have been unconfirmed reports of secret meetings since then.

Channel 10 News reported on Sunday that Israel had actually agreed to a three-way peace summit with the United States and the PA, but the PA conditioned such a summit taking place on Israel ceasing construction in Judea and Samaria and releasing additional terrorist prisoners.

The PA chairman has also insisted that any reboot of peace talks with Israel should happen within a clear timeframe and under international supervision.