- Title: Palestinian President Abbas departs West Bank, en route to Shimon Peres funeral
- Date: 30th September 2016
- Summary: RAMALLAH, WEST BANK (SEPTEMBER 30, 2016) (REUTERS) PALESTINIAN PRESIDENT MAHMOUD ABBAS' CONVOY LEAVING RAMALLAH OFER, WEST BANK (SEPTEMBER 30, 2016) (REUTERS) CONVOY DRIVING PALESTINIAN FLAGS VARIOUS OF CONVOY DRIVING CONVOY DRIVING PASSED WALL CONVOY NEAR FENCE SECURITY FORCES CONVOY DRIVING TOWARDS JERUSALEM ROAD SIGN READING IN HEBREW 'JERUSALEM' MORE OF CONVOY DRIVING
- Embargoed: 15th October 2016 07:19
- Keywords: Israel West Bank Palestinian President Abbas convoy funeral
- Location: RAMALLAH, OFER, WEST BANK
- City: RAMALLAH, OFER, WEST BANK
- Country: Palestinian Territories
- Topics: Government/Politics
- Reuters ID: LVA00151R9YYV
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text: Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas departed the West Bank city of Ramallah on Friday (September 30) to attend the funeral of Shimon Peres in Jerusalem.
Peres, one of Israel's founding fathers who developed its vaunted armed forces and presumed nuclear capabilities before sharing a Nobel prize for peacemaking with the Palestinians, died on Wednesday (September 28) at 93 after suffering a stroke.
Dozens of world leaders, including United States President Barack Obama are expected to attend Peres' funeral.
Abbas's rare visit to the city, a short drive through Israeli military checkpoints from Ramallah, in the occupied West Bank, seemed unlikely to yield anything more than handshakes with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Obama.
Israeli-Palestinian negotiations have been frozen since 2014 and Netanyahu and Abbas, deeply divided over Jewish settlement on land Palestinians seek for a state and other issues, have not held face-to-face talks since 2010.
The leaders of Egypt and Jordan, the only Arab states to have signed peace treaties with Israel, were not on the roster of participants issued by Israel's Foreign Ministry. But the Egyptian foreign minister was scheduled to attend and King Abdullah of Jordan sent a telegram of condolences.
Britain's Prince Charles, French President Francois Hollande, Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, Polish President Andrzej Duda, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and former British leaders David Cameron and Tony Blair were also among a long list of foreign dignitaries attending the funeral. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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