Washington, March 25: The United States and Israel are in overtime talks trying to win agreement on gestures Israel can take to restore confidence among Palestinians and the Obama administration.
US officials told a news agency that the closed-door talks are aimed at getting Israeli-Palestinian peace talks back on track and salvaging a diplomatic visit marred by the worst US-Israeli breach in years.
The officials says the administration’s special Mideast envoy, George Mitchell, was meeting late Wednesday afternoon with visiting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who extended his stay by hours to work on a deal.
They hope to come up with mutually acceptable ideas to improve an atmosphere poisoned by announcements of new Jewish housing projects on land claimed by Palestinians in east Jerusalem.
The talks took place after two meetings between President Barack Obama and the Israeli leader at the White House late Tuesday, which officials said failed to ease disagreements over Jewish settlements and other issues.
The flurry of diplomacy came with Israel and the United States mired in their worst public confrontation in years, which erupted two weeks ago when Israel announced the construction of 1,600 new settler homes in east Jerusalem.
Obama asked Netanyahu during two high-stakes meetings late Tuesday to take specific “confidence-building” steps to boost indirect talks Washington is trying to arrange with the Palestinians.
“There are areas of agreement. There are areas of disagreement, and that conversation is ongoing,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
There were no immediate details of Mitchell’s talks with Netanyahu.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton remained vague, when asked about the commitments Mitchell was trying to obtain on the Arab-Israeli peace process.
“We are engaged in ongoing discussions and Senator Mitchell is very actively part of that,” Hillary said. “Our goal is the resumption of negotiations, the launching of proximity talks as soon as possible.”
–Agencies