Jerusalem: US Middle East envoy George Mitchell was meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday for a third time in less than a week, trying to strike a deal on settlements ahead of the UN General Assembly next week.
The former US senator was huddling with the Premier in Jerusalem, officials said.
After the talks, he was to head to Ramallah in the occupied West Bank for talks with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas, their second meeting in days.
Mitchell has been in the region for nearly a week, urging all parties to "take responsibility" for peace amid US efforts to work toward a comprehensive regional deal to resolve the decades-old Arab-Israeli conflict.
He is aiming for some kind of Israeli moratorium on settlement construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the resumption of peace talks that were suspended in late December amid a devastating Israeli offensive on Gaza.
Such a deal could also pave the way for a three-way meeting between Netanyahu, Abbas and US President Barack Obama at the UN General Assembly next week.
Bureau Report
