Netanyahu invites Palestinian leader to Jerusalem
AFP
JERUSALEM- Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday intensified calls for face-to-face peace talks with the Palestinians, pledging to visit Ramallah if Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas would come to Jerusalem.
Netanyahu spoke to reporters after talks with visiting US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and one week ahead of a visit to the White House for a meeting with US President Barack Obama.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell (left) shakes hands with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Israel's declared capital of Jerusalem is just a short drive from Ramallah, the occupied West Bank's political capital and Abbas's seat of power. But since May the two sides have been negotiating through Mitchell, who shuttles between them.
The Palestinians froze direct negotiations in December 2008, when Israel launched a deadly offensive against Gaza to halt rocket attacks.
"I hope and I believe that a main part of my conversations with President Obama in Washington next week will be focused on how to start direct peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians right away," Netanyahu added.
"I think that this is the only way that we'll solve the intricate problems that we're discussing between us," he said.
Mitchell earlier visited an Israeli land crossing into the Gaza Strip to see at first hand the effects of Israel's easing of tough restrictions on goods entering the blockaded Palestinian enclave.
"We appreciate the changes that have been made," Mitchell said, standing next to Netanyahu in Jerusalem.
"There's been a great deal of progress in terms of permitting additional goods into Gaza, and I was assured by your people there that whatever the demand is, the capacity will be there to meet it."
Netanyahu's Defence Minister Ehud Barak on Wednesday said he would meet Palestinian prime minister Salam Fayyad in the coming days for a rare high-level meeting between the two sides.
Barak, who announced the meeting after he met Mitchell, did not say when it would take place.
"We are due to meet in the next few days. This is not the first time we are meeting and we will talk, I assume, about the situation on the ground, about security coordination," Barak told reporters after the meeting.
Fayyad's office confirmed that the two would meet and said Palestinians planned to discuss demands that Israel lift its Gaza blockade and stop military incursions into Palestinian cities.
Mitchell was due to meet Palestinian leaders on Thursday.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------