SHARM EL SHEIK, Egypt — Peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians are set to resume today in Egypt amid rising tensions over Israeli settlement construction, a key issue in the talks and one that’s prompted the Palestinian team to threaten to boycott the meetings.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell will attend the mini-summit in this Red Sea resort town, hoping to generate momentum in the recently revived talks between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Clinton also is scheduled to meet with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, a U.S. ally and powerful regional player who invited Israelis and Palestinians to convene in his country after an initial meeting Sept. 2 in Washington.
The U.S. administration, bedeviled by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, hopes to breathe new life into the peace negotiations, which have been stalled for nearly two years, and make good on President Barack Obama’s promises to improve U.S. relations with the Muslim world.
However, the fledgling talks may be short-lived if diplomats can’t find a way around the standoff over settlements within two weeks.
Significant concessions on the issue could topple Netanyahu’s coalition with right- wing parties, and he indicated Sunday that he wouldn’t renew a moratorium on the construction of new Jewish settlements in the West Bank after Sept. 26, when the 10-month freeze is due to expire.
Netanyahu reportedly suggested, however, that Israel would observe some limitations on new settlements in the area, which Israel seized from Jordan in the 1967 Mideast War.
Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, meanwhile, still must reach a compromise with the militant Islamic group Hamas, which seized control of the Gaza Strip in 2007. Abbas’ own mandate to govern expired last year, his popularity in the West Bank is diminishing, and corruption is rampant in his party and government.
Hours ahead of the meetings today, members of Abbas’ team, which arrived late Monday in Sharm el Sheik, reiterated threats to quit the talks if the settlement moratorium is lifted.
The Obama administration is pushing for a compromise on the settlements while trying to make enough headway on negotiations that it would be harder for Palestinians and Israelis to abandon them, according to senior U.S. and European diplomats.
One possible compromise is for Israel to agree to build settlements only in areas of the West Bank that it would receive in an expected land swap with the Palestinians under a final peace deal.
