Cairo, May 03: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meets Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Monday as Tel Aviv is poised to begin indirect negotiations with the Palestinians.
Their meeting in the Red Sea resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh comes two days after the Arab League backed proximity talks that were called off in March when Israel said it would build more illegal settlement units in occupied East Jerusalem.
“The two will discuss all sorts of matters, especially the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinians,” an Israeli official said when the visit was announced.
It will be Netanyahu’s first trip to key US ally and broker Egypt since December, and comes amid a flurry of diplomatic activity ahead of another visit to the region this week by US President Barack Obama’s envoy George Mitchell.
Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas is due to meet Mubarak, who is convalescing in Sharm el-Sheikh after surgery in March, on Wednesday.
The Palestinians and Israel had been set to begin indirect negotiations in March, but these were scuttled after Israel said it would build 1,600 illegal Jewish units in occupied Palestinian East Jerusalem.
An Arab League official said Washington had assured the Palestinians that the building plan would not proceed if they started the talks with Israel.
However, the Cairo-based organisation also clarified that indirect talks would not immediately lead to direct negotiations.
Egypt, a strong backer of Abbas, maintains a cold diplomatic relationship with Israel.
Abbas had held direct negotiations with Israel’s former premier Ehud Olmert in the absence of a settlement freeze, but the talks were discontinued after Israel launched an offensive against Gaza in December 2008.
The three-week winter war killed over1,300 Palestinians, mainly civilians.
Since leaving office, Olmert has said he was on the verge of reaching a peace deal with the Palestinians, whose occupied territories are Gaza, the West Bank, would includes East Jerusalem.
—Agencies