3 May 2010 / REUTERS, RAMALLAH
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, on the verge of indirect negotiations with Israel, said he would meet US President Barack Obama in Washington this month to advance Middle East peace.
Obama’s peace efforts received a boost on Saturday when Arab states approved four months of US-mediated talks, whose expected start in March was delayed by Israel’s announcement of a settlement project on occupied land near Jerusalem. In an interview published on Sunday in the Palestinian newspaper al-Ayyam, Abbas said Obama had given a commitment he would not allow “any provocative measures by either side.” He said the US leader had invited him to Washington later this month “in an attempt to push the peace process forward.” Abbas gave no specific date for the visit. Calling the Israeli-Palestinian conflict a direct security concern to the United States, Washington has pushed hard for a resumption of talks suspended since December 2008. But many observers question whether the latest effort can succeed where years of diplomacy have failed. Abbas’s last meeting with Obama was in September in New York, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also attended that meeting -- part of Obama’s efforts to get the peace process moving again.
