<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" standalone="yes"?><oembed><version><![CDATA[1.0]]></version><provider_name><![CDATA[Occupied Palestine | فلسطين]]></provider_name><provider_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com]]></provider_url><author_name><![CDATA[occupiedpalestine]]></author_name><author_url><![CDATA[https://occupiedpalestine.wordpress.com/author/hajarhajar/]]></author_url><title><![CDATA[Middle East News | US envoy ends Mideast talks with no&nbsp;progress]]></title><type><![CDATA[link]]></type><html><![CDATA[<p><span id="subT" class="txt_red_mid">Mitchell due to visit three Arab nations to save talks</span></p>
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<div style="overflow:hidden;float:right;width:142px;padding:5px 0;"><a class="lnk_red" href="http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/10/02/120972.html#002">Efforts appear faltering</a></div>
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<div style="overflow:hidden;float:right;width:142px;padding:5px 0;"><a class="lnk_red" href="http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/10/02/120972.html#003">Proposal rejected</a></div>
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<div class="txt_gry_tny" style="float:right;width:310px;">Mitchell (L) is due in Qatar before traveling to Egypt and Jordan (File)</div>
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<p class="txt_red">RAMALLAH, WASHINGTON (Agencies)</p>
<p>A  U.S. envoy concluded talks with Palestinian and Israeli leaders on  Friday without agreement on how to keep alive peace negotiations that  are on hold due to a dispute over Jewish settlement building.</p>
<p>Middle East envoy George Mitchell was due in Qatar before traveling to  Egypt and Jordan as part of efforts to save fledgling  Palestinian-Israeli peace talks.</p>
<p>&#8220;We continue to urge the parties to continue in these direct talks, and  Senator Mitchell will be talking to leaders in the region to encourage  them to continue to support this process,&#8221; State Department spokesman  Philip Crowley said.</p>
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<p class="txt_article">He said Mitchell would hold meetings in Doha early Saturday before traveling to Cairo and then head to Amman on Sunday.</p>
<p>The envoy, who arrived in the region on Tuesday, and EU foreign policy  chief Catherine Ashton shuttled Friday between Jerusalem and Ramallah in  a bid to save direct peace talks launched only four weeks ago.</p>
<p>Mitchell met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem  and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in Ramallah as he sought to  break the deadlock over Jewish settlements.</p>
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<p class="txt_article_lrg"><a id="002" name="002">Efforts appear faltering</a></p>
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<div class="txt_blu" style="padding:10px 10px 0;"><span class="txt_article_lrg">&#8221; </span>Both  the president and the prime minister have agreed that we will continue  our discussions, ongoing in an effort to move forward in this process  toward what we all share as a common goal: the establishment of  comprehensive peace in the Middle East<span class="txt_article_lrg"> &#8220;</span></div>
<div class="txt_red_tny" style="padding:5px 10px;">Middle East envoy George Mitchell</div>
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<p class="txt_article">U.S.  President Barack Obama&#8217;s drive to end the six-decade old conflict  appeared to be faltering just a month after his administration launched  the direct talks in Washington.</p>
<p>&#8220;Both the president and the prime minister have agreed that we will  continue our discussions, ongoing in an effort to move forward in this  process toward what we all share as a common goal: the establishment of  comprehensive peace in the Middle East,&#8221; Mitchell told reporters in  Ramallah.</p>
<p>&#8220;There remain obstacles. Our determination continues,&#8221; he said. Earlier  in Jerusalem, Netanyahu said: &#8220;We are making efforts together with  Senator Mitchell to continue to hold the talks with President Abbas. We  want the talks to continue.&#8221;</p>
<p>Abbas says he will pull out of the talks unless Israel extends its  10-month freeze on new building in Jewish settlements in the occupied  West Bank, which expired this week.</p>
<p>Palestinians say the growth of the settlements, on land Israel has  occupied since 1967, will render impossible the establishment of a  Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip &#8212; the stated goal of  the peace talks.</p>
<p>Some 500,000 Jews live on territory where the Palestinians aim to establish their state with East Jerusalem as its capital.</p>
<p>Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, said the United States  would &#8220;continue in their bilateral efforts between us and the Israelis,  each separately&#8221;.</p>
<p>&#8220;The key to direct talks is in the hand of the Israeli prime minister.  We hope that the Israeli leadership chooses peace and not settlement,&#8221;  he said after Mitchell&#8217;s meeting with Abbas.</p>
<p>Abbas has said he will take no final decision until the Arab League has  discussed the issue. There were indications on Friday that the Oct. 4  date for an Arab League consultation would be set back to Oct. 8 at the  request of U.S. ally Egypt.</p>
<p>European Union foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton said after talks  with the principals that major powers engaged in the process were &#8220;very  concerned that the ending of the moratorium should not put at risk the  possibility of long-term peace&#8221;.</p>
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<p class="txt_article_lrg"><a id="003" name="003">Proposal rejected</a></p>
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<div class="txt_blu" style="padding:10px 10px 0;"><span class="txt_article_lrg">&#8221; </span>The  key to direct talks is in the hand of the Israeli prime minister. We  hope that the Israeli leadership chooses peace and not settlement<span class="txt_article_lrg"> &#8220;</span></div>
<div class="txt_red_tny" style="padding:5px 10px;">Saeb Erekat</div>
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<p class="txt_article">Netanyahu  is refusing to extend the construction moratorium and Israeli reports  said he had rebuffed a U.S. offer of &#8220;very generous&#8221; incentives to  persuade him to extend it by 60 days.</p>
<p>One official quoted Netanyahu as telling his advisors that it was not  easy to freeze construction for the past 10 months and that he had lived  up to his commitments to the Palestinians, the United States and the  international community.</p>
<p>&#8220;Now I expect the Palestinians to show some flexibility,&#8221; Netanyahu was  quoted as saying. &#8220;Everyone knows that measured and restrained building  in Judaea and Samaria (the West Bank) in the coming year will have no  influence on the peace map.&#8221;</p>
<p>Obama has invested major political capital in a bid for a Middle East settlement within a year.</p>
<p>Israeli media suggested he was desperate to have Netanyahu agree to keep  the talks alive by keeping settlement construction frozen, and was  furious at being rebuffed.</p>
<p>A U.S. State Department official denied reports that Obama sent  Netanyahu a letter proposing security guarantees, including a continued  Israeli troop presence in the Jordan Valley after the creation of a  Palestinian state.</p>
<p>But an Israeli official, who requested anonymity, confirmed that &#8220;the  White House made an offer of incentives to Israel as described in the  media but these were rejected by Netanyahu&#8221;.</p>
<p>Israel&#8217;s Yedioth Ahronoth daily said Obama had not signed off on the  offer. The security proposals were floated in a paper drawn up last week  by Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak and White House Middle East aide  Dennis Ross, it said. It would have become a &#8220;presidential letter&#8221; only  if Netanyahu had accepted.</p>
<p>Obama succeeded in persuading Abbas to resume direct peace talks with  Israel on Sept. 2 after a 20-month hiatus but with no overt guarantee  from Netanyahu that the settlement freeze he ordered last November would  be extended.</p>
<p>Some Israeli political commentators expressed surprise the proposals had  been rejected. But they said Netanyahu was afraid of losing power if he  got too far out in front of his own governing coalition, which is  dominated by pro-settler parties skeptical of peace deals, including his  own right-wing Likud.</p>
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<p><a href="http://www.alarabiya.net/articles/2010/10/02/120972.html">Middle East News | US envoy ends Mideast talks with no progress</a>.</p>
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