Parties have "long and productive" talks in direct Mideast peace talks, U.S. envoy says

U.S. Envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell speaks to the media about direct negotiations between Israel and Palestine at the State Department in Washington D.C., capital of the United States, Sept. 2, 2010. (Xinhua/Zhang Jun)
U.S. Middle East special envoy George Mitchell said on Thursday that parties have "long and productive" talks in the first direct Middle East peace talks over the past 20 months.

The trilateral parties, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, have just concluded the first round of the talks, which lasted about one and a half hours, Mitchell told reporters here.

"In the trilateral meeting, there was a long and productive discussion on a range of issues," he said. "President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed their intent to approach these negotiations in good faith and with a seriousness of purpose. They also agreed that for these negotiations to succeed, they must be kept private and treated with the utmost sensitivity."

Both Netanyahu and Abbas agreed to make efforts to meet the one- year deadline set by the U.S. government to solve all final status issues, such as borders of a new Palestinian State, security, refugees and the future of Jerusalem, he said.

Both Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreed to meet again on Sept. 14-15 in the region, he said, adding that Clinton and himself will attend the Israeli-Palestinian meeting in about two weeks.

Earlier Thursday, Clinton relaunched the direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians at the State Department, the first over the past 20 months with an aim to end a six-decade conflict between the two sides in one year.

Clinton told both Netanyahu and Abbas that the United States will do its best to help promote the Middle East peace process, and it is up to the Israelis and Palestinians to reach a final agreement in one year.

Mitchell, who had led the four-month indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians, said the full trilateral delegations first met on the eighth floor of the State Department before they broke into a smaller meeting, which only involved Netanyahu, Abbas, Clinton and himself.

"President Abbas and Prime Minister Netanyahu then went into a separate meeting for a direct discussion," he said. "That meeting is still going on right now."

The direct talks were also the first face-to-face meeting between Abbas and Netanyahu since the latter took office in April 2009, three months after the end of Israel's military operation in Gaza, which caused the direct talks to stop at the time.

Before Mitchell briefed the reporters here about the direct Middle East peace talks, State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley said that the United States "successfully relaunched" the direct talks between Netanyahu and Abbas in order to realize the goal of a two-state solution.

Since he took office in early 2009, U.S. President Barack Obama has made Middle East peace process one of his top diplomatic priorities,as the administration believes solving the Israeli- Palestinian conflict concerns the national interests of the United States.

The United States is part of the diplomatic group, known as the Middle East Quartet, which, also made up of the United Nations, the European Union, Russia and the United States launched a roadmap for peace in 2003 that calls for an independent Palestinian state living in peace with a secure Israel.

At the same time, Mitchell acknowledged that the negotiations ahead are not easy, echoing the Wednesday statement by President Obama that "Hard work is only beginning."

"There are those who will use violence to try to derail these talks. There are going to be difficult days and many obstacles along the way," Mitchell said. "We recognize this is not an easy task. But as the (U.S.) president told the leaders, we expect to continue until our job is complete and successful. "

Speaking at the ceremony, chaired by Clinton, to relaunch the direct talks, Abbas said: "We know how hard it is in the negotiations ahead. What is encouraging is that the road is very clear."

For his part, Netanyahu said that the direct talks should lead to "truce concessions from both sides."

The new round of direct talks was held against the backdrop that Abbas has said that a peace agreement with Israel can be reached within one year while Netanyahu stated that a peace agreement would be difficult but "possible."

There are many obstacles to success, most immediately among them the looming Sept. 26 expiration of a 10-month Israeli moratorium on construction in West Bank settlements. Palestinians see such construction as a key obstacle to statehood, the observers said.

Source: Xinhua