Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Turkey Sunday for an official visit. During the visit, Abbas was to meet with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and President Abdullah Gul. The visit will extend through Tuesday, when Abbas will fly to Greece for meetings with leaders there. According to a PA statement, Abbas was to update the Turkish leaders on recent developments in the stalled negotiations with Israel. The PA dropped out of U.S. sponsored talks at the end of September, demanding that Israel impose another building freeze on Judea and Samaria – a move that Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has said he would be willing to undertake, if Israel receives specific guarantees from Washington. Most of Netanyahu's coalition is against an additional freeze. In the meantime, Abbas says he will not return to negotiations. On Thursday, a PA official said Washington had officially informed the PA that attempts to secure a new Israeli settlement freeze had failed. US officials have refused to confirm or deny the report, the Maan news agency reported. A statement by Gul's office said that he and Abbas would "discuss and consult on ... bilateral ties, the latest situation in Palestine and regional developments, primarily the Middle East peace process." Earlier on Sunday, Abbas was in Jordan, meeting with King Abdullah II. The PA leader said that he and the king agreed to continue cooperation and coordination "in light of an expected US position in the coming few days, and we should examine it together." He did not explain what type of US position was expected. Besides an additional freeze, the PA has not backed down on any of its other demands, such as Israel's surrender of liberated parts of Jerusalem, an Israeli withdrawal to the 1948 armistice lines, and the resettlement in Israel of descendants of refugees who fled in the wake of the 1948 War of Independence. He is not willing to recognize Israel as the Jewish state. In the past, Turkey has expressed full support for the PA's positions.
