Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad met with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Jerusalem on Monday, and discussed prospects for a return to negotiations with Israel, officials said.
The meeting was set to follow-up Clinton's meeting with President Mahmoud Abbas in Paris ten days ago, when Abbas asked the US official to communicate to Israel his demands before going ahead with talks, presidential advisor Nimir Hamad told Ma'an.
Abbas wants Israel to release Palestinian prisoners detained before the 1993 Oslo Accords and allow the transfer of new weapons to the Palestinian Authority, before he agrees to sit with Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu.
Hamad said Clinton promised to share these issues with Israel in order to create an atmosphere conducive to negotiations.
Israeli daily Haaretz said Clinton pressed Israeli leaders during her visit to take steps to strengthen the Palestinian Authority, saying Abbas and Fayyad are the best ever partners to make peace with Israel.
The US official met with the Israeli premier, President Shimon Peres, Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in her first first visit to Israel since US-brokered peace talks between Palestinians and Israelis broke down in 2010.
Netanyahu told Clinton "we have to invest every effort to maintain the tranquility and see if we can move the process forward" with the Palestinians."
A group of Palestinian journalists refused to take part in a press conference at the US consulate in Jerusalem after Clinton's meeting with Fayyad, to protest the Israeli internal security service's insistence on strip searching Palestinian media participants.
Consulate officials apologized and said they would pass on the message of the protest, according to journalists present. Palestinian Journalist Syndicate chairman Abdul Naser An-Najjar slammed the measures, saying Palestinian journalists would always stand up for freedom.
Meanwhile, PLO official and head of the Palestinian Liberation Front Wasel Abu Yousef criticized holding meetings with American leadership, saying a recent congressional committee hearing on corruption in the Palestinian Authority was designed to personally pressure Abbas into giving up his demands.
"There is no benefit to meeting with the American administration due to their biased position against the Palestinian people and its leadership," the political leader said.
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