Nabil Abu Rudeineh
Nabil Abu RudeinehReuters

Nabil Abu Rudeineh, spokesman for Palestinian Authority (PA) chairman Mahmoud Abbas, said on Wednesday that Abbas is ready for a three-way meeting with Israel in Moscow if Russian President Vladimir Putin calls for one, reports the PA official news agency Wafa.

Abu Rudeineh was responding to statements by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu who said on the eve of his trip to Moscow and meeting with Putin that he is ready for a meeting if there is a Palestinian leader to meet with.

“This is not true at all. President Putin had previously arranged a meeting with Netanyahu in Moscow and the president has agreed to attend but Netanyahu evaded it,” claimed the spokesman.

Abbas, continued Abu Rudeineh, “is always ready to accept President Putin’s call for such a meeting at any time with the current premier or any other future Israeli prime minister who will assume that post after the elections in order to achieve the just and lasting peace.”

Putin has in the past expressed a desire to host an Israeli-Palestinian Arab summit to revive the talks but nothing has materialized yet in this regard.

The Israel-PA peace process has been frozen since 2014, when Abbas breached conditions of talks that were ongoing at the time by unilaterally joining international treaties and conventions.

While the PA chairman claims he is ready to sit down for peace talks, he has continuously rejected Netanyahu’s call to sit down for peace negotiations, and has instead chosen to impose preconditions on talks.

During a meeting with the Russian president last year, Abbas told Putin he could no longer accept the role of the United States as a mediator in talks with Israel following President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.