(AP) — The Israeli prime minister came to Moscow on Thursday to discuss the U.S. Mideast peace plan and take an Israeli woman who had been jailed in Russia back home.
Benjamin Netanyahu made a stopover in Moscow after visiting Washington where President Donald Trump as he unveiled his long-awaited Mideast peace plan Tuesday.
Trump’s plan envisions a disjointed Palestinian state that turns over key parts of the West Bank to Israel. It sides with Israel on key contentious issues that have bedeviled past peace efforts, including borders and the status of Jerusalem and Jewish settlements, and attaches nearly impossible conditions for granting the Palestinians their hoped-for state.
Netanyahu told Russian President Vladimir Putin as they sat down for talks in the Kremlin that he wants to discuss the plan and hear his opinion about it.
The Israeli leader’s visit comes a day after Putin pardoned 26-year-old Naama Issachar, who was arrested in April at a Moscow airport, where she was transferring en route from India to Israel. Russian authorities said more than nine grams of hashish were found in her luggage. She was convicted and sentenced to 7 1/2 years in prison.
Putin asked Netanyahu to give his regards to Issachar and her mother.
“I would like to thank you on behalf of all the people of Israel for granting a pardon to Naama Issachar,” Netanyahu said. “We are all touched by this”