Abbas Meets Egypt Fm, Arab League Chief İn Cairo

Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas met Friday with Arab League chief Nabil al-Arabi and Egyptian Foreign Minister Sameh Shoukry, the Palestinian ambassador in Cairo has said.



According to Ambassador Gamal al-Shobaki, the two separate meetings tackled the PA's bid to secure a UN Security Council resolution setting a deadline for an Israeli withdrawal from the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.



The meeting, al-Shobaki added, also discussed an ongoing wave of upheaval in Jerusalem, which erupted late last month after Israel temporarily closed the flashpoint Al-Aqsa Mosque complex to Muslim worshippers.



Abbas arrived in Cairo on Thursday for a three-day visit in which he will also attend a meeting of the Arab League's peace-monitoring committee, slated for Saturday.



Abbas plans to submit the draft resolution to the UN Security Council within days.



The resolution would bind Israel to a November 2016 deadline for completely withdrawing from all Palestinian territories occupied in 1967.



Abbas' bid comes after Palestinian-Israeli peace talks broke down in April after the self-proclaimed Jewish state failed to honor earlier promises to release a group of Palestinian prisoners.



According to recent statements by Abbas, the PA's draft resolution will seek to apply a "two-state solution," featuring an independent Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.



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