US, Israeli officials meet again to discuss reviving peace talks 

(MENAFN - Jordan Times) US special envoy George Mitchell held talks in Washington on Wednesday with two Israeli envoys as part of efforts to revive Palestinian-Israeli peace negotiations, a spokesman said.

Philip Crowley, the assistant secretary of state for public affairs, said the talks follow up on the summit US President Barack Obama had last week with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

"Starting right about now here at the Department of State... we have a meeting between George Mitchell and an Israeli delegation, following up on the discussion and the trilateral meeting last week in New York," Crowley told reporters.

Representing the Israelis are a senior Netanyahu aide, Yitzhak Molho, and Defence Minister Ehud Barak's chief of staff Michael Herzog, he added.

Mitchell was due to meet with a Palestinian delegation on Thursday, Crowley said.

Obama's administration has been struggling to get the Israelis and the Palestinians to agree to relaunch their peace talks which were suspended in late December during the Gaza war, with the thorny issue of Jewish settlements the main stumbling block.

Obama announced last week as he met Israeli and Palestinian leaders that he had asked both sides to send negotiators to Washington for the talks, brokered by Mitchell.

Abbas has been told by his Fateh movement that he must not resume peace talks unless Israel freezes its settlement construction, a senior Fateh member said Wednesday.

Fateh's position could help Abbas stand up to US pressure to return to talks with Israel.

Abbas has repeatedly said he would not return to talks without a freeze in Israeli settlements, which is mandated by a US-backed peace plan. Israel refuses to comply, offering at best to slow construction for a limited period.

Fateh's Central Committee, the movement's key decision-making body, met late Tuesday with Abbas to discuss his options following last week's trilateral meeting with Obama and Netanyahu.

Mohammed Dahlan, a committee member, said the panel told Abbas he must not budge.

"Settlements and negotiations are two parallel lines that will never meet," Dahlan told the Associated Press.

The settlements are being built in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, areas captured by Israel in the 1967 Mideast war and sought by the Palestinians for a future state. Nearly half a million Israelis have moved to these areas over the past four decades.

Prisoners

Israel will free 20 Palestinian women prisoners in return for a video of a soldier held in Gaza, in a breakthrough in nearly three years of indirect talks with Hamas, officials said on Wednesday.

"The Israeli Security Cabinet decided to authorise the release of 20 Palestinian women detainees and prisoners," the Israeli prime minister's office said in a statement.

"Israel will receive updated and clear proof on the health and condition of Gilad Shalit. This proof of life will be handed to Israel by the mediators in the form of a videotape that has recently been filmed."

The release of the prisoners and the handing over of the videotape to Israel will be done back-to-back on Friday, a senior Israeli official told reporters.

The Izzeddine Al Qassam Brigades, the armed wing of Hamas, confirmed the deal, which was proposed by Egyptians and Germans mediating the indirect talks between the Islamist rulers of the Gaza Strip and Israel.