A burst of shuttle diplomacy by US President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy on Friday produced no immediate results, with Palestinian and Israeli leaders still at odds over terms for resuming direct talks. An Israeli official said after envoy George Mitchell met Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem that Israel might freeze settlements in the West Bank for longer than the six months it previously suggested, but not for as long as a year.
"Israel will agree to extend the freeze beyond six months - possibly nine months, but less than a year," the official told reporters, speaking on condition of anonymity. However, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, speaking after a later meeting between Mitchell and President Mahmoud Abbas in the nearby West Bank city of Ramallah, told reporters: "Mitchell's shuttle visit has ended without agreement. "There is no agreement yet with the Israeli side and no middle ground solution," Erekat said. Mitchell headed back to Jerusalem and met Netanyahu again.
The former senator, who is credited with helping bring peace to Northern Ireland, was due to fly home later in the day after a week in the Middle East with little to show for his efforts. Abbas has demanded a full halt to settlement expansion in the West Bank and East Jerusalem as a condition for resuming negotiations on a final peace settlement that were broken off in December.
Obama has endorsed that call, urging both sides to meet the terms of a 2003 US-backed "road map" for peace. Netanyahu has ruled out stopping construction in East Jerusalem and wants settlements in the West Bank to be able to grow to accommodate the expanding families of current settlers.
With both sides heading into respective public holidays - the Jewish New Year and Muslim Eidul-Fitr - Mitchell is on a tight deadline to persuade the two leaders to join Obama at a possible trilateral meeting in New York, when all three are to attend next week's General Assembly of the United Nations.
Erekat said such a meeting was still possible - but would be "meaningless" without a change in position by Netanyahu. Both Palestinian and Israeli officials acknowledge that it will be hard for their leaders to refuse an invitation from Obama, who has pledged to work to settle six decades of conflict as part of efforts to stabilise the Middle East as a whole.
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