US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is to met Israeli and the Palestinians leaders today in an attempt to revive stalled peace negotiations amid tension in US Israeli relations.
Mr Mitchell first met Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak of the centre-left Labour party, who on Monday expressed concern over the strain in ties and said "we must act to change things".
He was then due to meet prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and later Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
A senior Israeli official played down a newspaper report that Mr Netanyahu had proposed agreeing to Palestinian statehood with temporary borders in order to sidestep the current deadlock over Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
Mr Abbas has rejected past Israeli suggestions for a state with provisional borders, but the left-wing daily newspaper Haaretz said Mr Netanyahu was floating an interim deal to entice him back to the negotiating table, as US president Barack Obama is urging.
In Washington, State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said the decision to dispatch Mr Mitchell on a new mission was made after talks with Israelis and Palestinians. “We don't go to meet just to meet. We go there because we have some indication that both sides are willing to engage seriously on the issues," he said.
Mr Netanyahu and Mr Obama have been sharply at odds over Israeli settlement policy in the occupied West Bank, a territory the Palestinians want for their state.
The Israeli leader wants to avoid harming ties with Israel's largest ally, but yielding any ground to the US or Palestinians could unhinge his pro-settler ruling coalition.
Mr Netanyahu reiterated yesterday that he would not freeze settlement building in the area of East Jerusalem, land Israel captured in 1967 and annexed as part of its capital in a move not recognised internationally.
"Our policy in Jerusalem will not change," he told Israel's Channel Two television. "There won't be a freeze in Jerusalem...Why do I need to give up on Jerusalem?"
Mr Netanyahu still has not responded publicly to what political sources have said is a list of 11 "confidence-building" steps that Mr Obama demanded in talks last month in Washington, to coax Palestinians back to negotiations suspended since December 2008.
Mr Abbas has insisted Israeli settlement building must cease before talks with Israel can resume.
Reuters
