Mitchell travels to Ramallah again
PM meets for third time in four days with US special envoy, who is attempting to organize three-way summit between Netanyahu, US President Obama and Palestinian leader Abbas in New York next week. Mitchell to meet again with Netanyahu immediately after returning from PA on Friday. Settlement construction remains main bone of contention
Prime Minister Netanyahu and US special envoy George Mitchell met Friday morning in Jerusalem for the third time in four days. The two are attempting to reach agreements which would lead to the summit the Americans are interested in organizing, between Netanyahu, US President Barack Obama, and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
After the meeting, Mitchell was scheduled to travel to Ramallah and will return to Jerusalem for another meeting with Netanyahu before the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Rosh Hashana.
Between his two meetings with Mitchell, Netanyahu was expected to visit Shas' spiritual leader, Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in order to present him with the possible compromises in terms of settlement construction and the American demands, and wish him a happy Jewish New Year.
The Shas party reported that the rabbi gave the prime minister a blessing for the Jewish New Year and praised his for standing strong in the diplomatic arena.
The prime minister's meeting with the government's limited security-political forum has been cancelled.
So far, the talks have failed in yielding an agreement between Israel and the United States, while the Palestinian are imposing tough conditions for a New York summit next week, during the United Nations General Assembly. The main bone of contention remains the settlement construction, its duration and exact nature.
The prime minister has reiterated that he would not agree to a complete freeze, while the Palestinians are making this a condition for launching the negotiations. Israel also wants to know what normalization gestures Arab countries are willing to provide in order to startup the regional process.
At the moment, Netanyahu is scheduled to leave for the UN on Wednesday. However an El Al plane has been prepared for the possibility of moving up the flight, should the summit be finalized. Defense Minister Ehud Barak and Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.
During a meeting of the narrow security-political forum this week, Barak pushed for relaxing Israel's stance in order to startup the peace process, while examining the red lines during the negotiations.
Lieberman, like fellow Minister Benny Begin and Moshe Yaalon, have expressed their doubts over the possibility of holding negotiations in light of the recent Fatah convention and declarations made by Abbas and his associates.
On Thursday, Mitchell visited Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt for meetings with the Arab countries' leaders. Jordan's King Abdullah called on Israel not to block moves to relaunch Middle East peace talks by continuing to build settlements in the West Bank.
"His Majesty stressed the importance of the United States playing a leading role in these negotiations and putting mechanisms that ensure they arrive at a two-state solution within a specific time frame," the king was quoted as telling Mitchell.
Following his meeting with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo, Mitchell told reporters that "the United States is asking all the parties - Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab states - to take responsibility for peace through concrete actions that will help create a positive context for the relaunch of negotiations."
According to Palestinian agency Maan, Abbas is expected to meet with Mubarak in Cairo on Saturday to discuss the peace process ahead of the UN General Assembly.
Reuters contributed to this report
