Google – AFP, 1 November 2013
Jerusalem —
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu left for Rome on Sunday for a two-day
official visit during which he will meet Pope Francis for the first time.
The Israeli
leader took off around midday accompanied by six of his ministers, including
his newly reappointed Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, public radio said.
During the
visit, Netanyahu is also due to meet his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta, and
will hold a joint session with the Italian cabinet, it said.
On Monday,
he will be granted his first audience with Pope Francis, who took over as the
worldwide head of the Catholic Church in March.
Six weeks
ago, Netanyahu's office had said he would meet the pope during a visit to Rome
in late October, but the meeting never happened -- with a diplomatic source
telling AFP it would not happen because it had not been coordinated in advance
with the Vatican.
When the
two meet on Monday, they are likely to discuss the Iranian nuclear issue and
the ongoing peace talks with the Palestinians.
And they
are also expected to discuss the pope's planned visit to the Holy Land early
next year.
Pope
Francis has already been invited to visit the Christian holy sites by Israeli
President Shimon Peres in April, and by Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas, who
met him on October 17.
Israeli
sources say the visit could take place before Peres ends his term as president
in July. Although no date has been made official, sources on both sides say it
is likely to take place on May 25-26.
The papal
visit will reportedly begin in Jordan, a senior Vatican official said on
Saturday, according to Jordanian state news agency Petra.
"The
pope's visit to the Holy Land will begin in Jordan," Vatican foreign
affairs official Dominique Mamberti said in Amman after meeting Jordan's
Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.
Israel and
the Vatican first established full diplomatic relations in 1993, but have been
engaged in years of thorny diplomatic negotiations over property rights and tax
exemptions for the Catholic Church, which have yet to be fully resolved.
The Holy
See wants full recognition of the legal and patrimonial rights of Catholic
communities in Israel and formal confirmation of tax exemptions enjoyed by the
Church since the Jewish state's emergence in 1948 and which the UN has asked
Israel to honour.
One of the
most delicate questions involves access by Catholic worshippers to a site on
Mount Zion in Jerusalem called the Cenacle, where Christians believe Jesus held
the Last Supper the night before he was crucified.
In June,
the sides agreed to step up negotiations over the outstanding issues.
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