Leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority held their first joint phone call in five years on Friday, just days before President Joe Biden is set to visit the region.
The phone call included an expressed desire between the leaders to keep the long-standing conflict between the two regions calmer than in previous years, Israel’s new prime minister, Yair Lapid, said Friday.
“We agreed to maintain close security coordination and to avoid actions that may cause instability,” Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz said Friday, according to Reuters.
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Mahmoud Abbas, leader of the Palestinian Authority, stressed the importance of both sides maintaining their commitment to agreements they signed in the 1990s, according to CNN.
Biden, who welcomed the dialogue, is slated to meet with both leaders during the trip, including meeting the Palestinian Authority’s leader in the disputed West Bank for the first time since 2017, the same year then-Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last spoke to Abbas.
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Abbas also met with Israeli President Isaac Herzog on Thursday, during which the two men discussed the death of journalist Abu Akleh in May. The death of Akleh was likely caused by an Israeli soldier, according to the U.S. State Department.
