Mideast leaders to meet again Friday, 03 September 2010 04:45

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shakes hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton looks on during direct trilateral negotiations about a Middle East peace plan at the State Department in Washington DC yesterday.

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WASHINGTON: Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed yesterday to keep talking and produce a framework for a permanent peace deal, modest achievements reached amid deep scepticism about success at their first such session in two years.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet again on September 14 and 15 in the Middle East, likely at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm El Sheik, with an eye toward forging the outline of a pact. They will also meet roughly every two weeks after that.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who hosted the talks at the State Department, will attend the next round. In a public plea for both sides to compromise in the name of peace, Clinton said the Obama administration has no illusions about reaching a quick breakthrough.

“We’ve been here before and we know how difficult the road ahead will be,” she said. “There undoubtedly will be obstacles and setbacks. Those who oppose the cause of peace will try in every way possible to sabotage this process, as we have already seen this week.” She was referring to Palestinian attacks on Israelis in the disputed West Bank on Tuesday and Wednesday.

The United States’ special Mideast envoy George Mitchell announced the developments after several hours of talks between Netanyahu and Abbas at which the two leaders pledged to work through the region’s deeply ingrained mutual hostility and suspicion to resolve the long-running conflict in a year’s time.

Mitchell declined to detail what the framework agreement would include but said it would lay out the main compromises necessary to get to a full peace treaty.

“Our goal is to resolve all of the core issues within one year, and the parties themselves have suggested and agreed that the logical way to proceed, to tackle them, is to try to reach a framework agreement first,” he told reporters as Abbas and Netanyahu remained in a one-on-one session that completed the day’s talks.

AP

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