U.S. Special Middle East Envoy, George Mitchell, held a meeting on Monday evening with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the residence of the Palestinian ambassador in Amman – Jordan. The two held talks on the efforts to resume the peace process. Earlier on Monday, Mitchell held talks with King Abdullah of Jordan and stressed on the importance of achieving a comprehensive and everlasting peace between Israel and the Palestinians, based on the two-state solution.
Mitchell told Abdullah that Washington would continue its efforts to achieve peace.
On his side, king Abdullah called on the U.S. administration to play a leading role in finding the right atmosphere to resume the Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
The king warned that failing to achieve peace would affect the stability of the whole region.
The resumption of peace talks remains unlikely as the Israeli government rejects talks on core issues such as Jerusalem, the Right of Return of the Palestinian refugees, and borders.
The United States backed down on its precondition that Israel should halt its settlement activities in the occupied territories before peace talks are resumed.
On Sunday, U.S. Secretary of State, Hilary Clinton, held a meeting with Netanyahu and informed him that the US government will no longer press the Israelis to freeze settlement construction as a precondition for peace talks with the Palestinians — but she insisted that this was not a policy change on the part of the US government.
Her statements came while despite a statement by the Israeli government confirming a rapid increase in construction in at least 11 settlements, although Palestinians say that they have witnessed increased construction on many more.
