Abbas invited to Washington as US ramps up peace efforts

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BRISBANE, Australia : Australian batsman Dan Christian (L) is congratulated by teammate David Hussey ® after he hit for four runs during their one-day international cricket match against India here Sunday. — AFP Photo

RAMALLAH, West Bank, Apr 25 (AFP): United States (US) President Barack Obama has invited Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas to Washington in May in a fresh bid to relaunch Middle East peace talks, a Palestinian official said Sunday.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu meanwhile reiterated his desire to immediately launch direct talks with the Palestinians and said he expects to learn 'in the next few days' whether negotiations would resume.
The invitation to Abbas was delivered by Obama's envoy to the Middle East, George Mitchell, who met the Palestinian president in the occupied West Bank on Friday, according to chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat.
"Mitchell invited president Abbas to visit the United States in May and he has responded positively to the invitation," said Erakat, adding that the exact date of the talks has yet to be determined.
The two leaders were expected to discuss efforts to revive peace talks last suspended after the outbreak of the Gaza war in December 2008.
Washington has not yet officially announced the invitation to Abbas and a US official declined to comment on whether Netanyahu would also be invited.
The United States has been pressing the two sides to return to negotiations for months, but the Palestinians have refused to do so without a complete Israeli settlement freeze including in occupied and annexed east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said after meeting with Mitchell Sunday that both Israel and the United States want an immediate resumption of talks.
"I only hope that the Palestinians also want an immediate start to the peace process," he told reporters at the start of the weekly cabinet meeting. "We shall know in the next few days if the process is under way."
Erakat insisted however that there would be no negotiations until Israel halted settlement construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.
As with previous visits Mitchell was tight-lipped about the talks, saying only that they were "positive and productive" and that he would return to the region next week.
The Israeli newspaper Haaretz meanwhile reported that indirect "proximity" talks between the two sides would resume no later than mid-May, citing unnamed officials involved in the peace efforts.
Meanwhile, hundreds of police officers deployed in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan Sunday as extreme Israeli rightists set out to march in an attempt to demonstrate Israeli sovereignty over all of Jerusalem.
The march began just as US Middle East envoy George Mitchell met Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem for a second round of talks since Mitchell's arrival in the region.