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Israel and Palestinian Leaders Extend Egypt Talks
Loading ...The leaders of Israel and the Palestinian Authority held nearly two hours of face-to-face talks in this Red Sea resort on Tuesday in a second round of negotiations that delved into the core issues dividing them but did not yet break an impasse over Jewish settlements.
A Palestinian at the construction site for a Jewish settlement near Jerusalem. The expiration of a freeze on new construction threatens peace talks.
President Obama’s special representative to the Middle East, George J. Mitchell, said he was encouraged by the overall direction of the talks but declined to say whether the two sides made any progress on a dispute over Israel’s moratorium on settlement construction, due to expire on Sept. 26.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ruled out extending the moratorium, while the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas, has threatened to walk out of the talks if Israel allows it to expire.
But in a sign of the complexity of the talks, Mr. Netanyahu delayed plans to return to Jerusalem after a lunch hosted by the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, to hold an unscheduled meeting with Mr. Abbas, an Israeli official said. The two had already planned to meet again on Wednesday in Jerusalem.
Speaking to reporters after the first meeting, Mr. Mitchell said, “We continue our efforts to make progress, and we believe we are moving in the right direction overall.”
In addition to the Israeli and Palestinian leaders, the meeting included Mr. Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
Continue Reading at NYTimes.com.
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