Barak: Preparing to meet Abbas Photo: Hagai Aharon
Barak secretly meets with Palestinian PM
Defense minister holds secret contacts with emergency Palestinian government Prime Minister Salam Fayyad; the two discuss easing restrictions on Palestinians in West Bank, lay groundwork for meeting planned between Barak, Abbas
Defense Minister Ehud Barak secretly met with the prime minister of the emergency Palestinian government Salam Fayyad in the West Bank last week, Ynet has learned.
A senior Palestinian source revealed that the Israeli and Palestinian sides have been holding meetings to lay the groundwork for an upcoming meeting between Barak and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
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The two leaders chiefly addressed Israel's intentions to ease restrictions on Palestinians in the West Bank to boost Abbas.
Sources in Jerusalem confirmed the meeting between Barak and Fayyad. They said the two discussed removing a number of checkpoints between West Bank cities, and the transfer of tax money which Israel collects for the Palestinian Authority.
Palestinian sources said Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin also joined the meeting, although Diskin's office denied the report.
Fayyad raised a number of security issues, including the fate of security prisoners arrested in the West Bank, many of whom are members of Fatah and its armed wing, the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade.
Fayyad also asked for an Israeli commitment to stop military operations in A and B zones in the West Bank, so that at least those areas could gradually return to their pre-Intifada status.
The Palestinian prime minister demanded that Palestinian security forces be allowed freedom of operation in those zones, and stressed that Israeli cooperation in this matter would boost his plan to dismantle militias in the West Bank.
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