JERUSALEM, Jan. 24 (Xinhua) -- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday met with visiting U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell for the second time during the latter's latest efforts to restart the stalled peace process with the Palestinians.
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| Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (R) shakes hands with U.S. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell in Jerusalem January 24, 2010, in this picture released by the Israeli Government Press Office (GPO). Netanyahu said on Sunday he heard "interesting ideas" from the U.S. envoy on resuming peace talks with the Palestinians but gave no indication any significant progress had been made.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
No breakthrough has been announced following the early morning meeting, and local daily Ha'aretz quoted top U.S. and Israeli officials as saying that they had low expectations of any major developments during Mitchell's ongoing visit to the Middle East, the first this year.
Shortly after the tete-a-tete with Mitchell, Netanyahu said at a weekly cabinet meeting that the U.S. emissary mentioned "a number of ideas on how to jumpstart the peace process" and that he expressed hope that these ideas would bring the Palestinians back to the negotiation table, reported local news service Ynet.
Mitchell returned to the region after the U.S. administration under President Barack Obama had failed to break the Mideast peace impasse during its first year in office. In a recent interview with the Time magazine, Obama admitted that his government had set the expectations too high, but he vowed to continue his efforts to bring peace to the volatile region.
The U.S. envoy met with Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas respectively on Thursday and Friday, and is expected to travel to Jordan and Egypt for more pushing efforts. While in Amman, he is slated to hold a second round of talks with Abbas.
Despite Washington's earnest mediation, Israel and the Palestinians have so far failed to resume their peace talks that had bogged down since Israel's massive military offensive against the Gaza Strip a year ago, and the two neighbors locked in the decades-old conflict accuse each other of impeding the renewal of the peace process.
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| Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (C) convenes the weekly cabinet meeting in Jerusalem January 24, 2010.(Xinhua/Reuters Photo) |
The Netanyahu government has announced a 10-month moratorium on new construction projects in West Bank settlements, and stressed that the move represented a rare opportunity for the Palestinians to sit down and start peace talks.
Yet the Palestinians condemned the Israeli gesture as insufficient, and has stood firm with their demand that Israel completely halt Jewish construction both in the West Bank and in the Arab-dominated East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim to be the capital of their future state.
