Liberman accuses PM of conducting secret talks with PA president

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s associates denied allegation from Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman Thursday that he is conducting secret negotiations with Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas.

In an interview with Ynet, Liberman said the prime minister was hiding secret talks from the members of his security cabinet. As proof, Liberman cited Netanyahu’s repeated invitations to Abbas to meet with him at any time, and Israel stopping its efforts to persuade the PA to pay its debt to the Israel Electric Corporation.

Liberman said he believed the two sides had exchanged documents containing each other’s demands, and that the Palestinians were demanding that the IDF stop entering Area A in the West Bank, which is under full Palestinian control according to the Oslo Accords.

As further evidence, Liberman cited negotiations between the Likud and the Zionist Union on a national unity government that were stymied by the probe of Zionist Union chairman Isaac Herzog. Liberman has repeatedly refused to join the government unless a long list of demands are accepted, including requests that would be unacceptable to United Torah Judaism and Shas, both currently members of the coalition.

Netanyahu’s spokesman for the foreign press, David Keyes, said in response that the prime minister has repeatedly called on Abbas to meet, and said that the first item on his agenda would be for him to stop preaching hatred against Israel, but Abbas has not responded.