JERUSALEM: When President Barack Obama won the Nobel Peace Prize on Friday, his Middle East envoy was hard at work in Jerusalem trying to revive a faltering peace process on which Obama has staked his credibility and that of the United States.
Israel’s refusal to freeze settlement construction, a Palestinian refusal to resume peace talks without that freeze and widespread predictions of failure overshadowed George Mitchell’s meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders — underscoring the tough road ahead for the Obama administration’s peace ambitions.
Mitchell talked with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for two hours Friday about peace efforts, and the two men agreed to meet again in the next few days, said a statement released by Netanyahu’s office after the closed-door meeting.
The statement described the meeting as “effective and constructive” but did not detail its contents. It said Mitchell and his advisers would meet Saturday with senior Netanyahu aides.
Mitchell later met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank capital of Ramallah. He also plans to hold talks with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Saturday. But expectations of a breakthrough were low.
Despite the many obstacles in his path, Mitchell began his latest round of talks Thursday reiterating Obama’s dogged intent to bring the Israelis and Palestinians back to the negotiating table.
“President Obama ... and the US government remain deeply and firmly committed toward achieving a comprehensive peace,” he told reporters as he arrived for a meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres.
Obama began his term in office with a Middle East peace push that included an unequivocal call for Israel to halt settlement activity in the West Bank.
Though Netanyahu agreed in principle to the formation of a Palestinian state, he refused to agree to a full halt to settlement construction. The Palestinians have been sticking to their demand for a full settlement freeze.
In an interview published Friday in the Israeli daily Haaretz, Jordan’s King Abdallah warned that the sides were “sliding back into the darkness.”
He also expressed alarm at repeated clashes between Israeli police and Palestinian protesters in Jerusalem, describing the city as “a tinderbox.”
Israeli forces on Friday clashed with stone-throwing Palestinians after they were denied access to Al-Aqsa Mosque. Eleven officers were injured and two Palestinians arrested, a police spokesman said after the scuffles, which came as Palestinians staged a one-day strike in defense of the compound.
Several hundred Palestinians performed prayers in the open just outside the Old City after being denied access to Al-Aqsa.
Security forces set up checkpoints around and within the Old City and turned back Palestinians who do not live or work there, witnesses said.
