In an effort to sound out the prospects for a move to direct talks between Israel and the Palestinians, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held separate talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Mideast envoy George Mitchell and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
None of the leaders — nor the US envoy — spoke after the meetings, but Egypt's foreign minister, Ahmed Aboul Gheit, told reporters there is still work to be done before the parties could engage in direct talks.
“There must be a strong Israeli strategic move that would deepen Palestinian trust in Israel's intentions, so we can move from indirect to direct talks,” Aboul Gheit said.
“Egypt thinks there is the need for direct talks, that they are the road to reach a settlement ... but to have these direct talks, the atmosphere must be ripe and enough progress made.” Cairo called for a more hands-on US role with the two sides to lay the groundwork for direct negotiations. Aboul Gheit said this could include at least a general framework from Washington for the final settlement.
Egypt's top diplomat also said there is still more discussion and diplomacy needed in an effort to narrow the divide and build trust between the two sides.
“We are still hopeful that we can bridge that gap, the gap between the needs of security for Israel and the borders for the Palestinians,” Aboul Gheit said. “You have to create the basis to proceed from indirect to direct talks. That is still lacking. We need to help the Americans and both parties to come closer to each other.” He said Mubarak received a message Sunday from US President Barack Obama and a telephone call from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urging a swift move to direct peace talks.
Aboul Gheit said he hoped that by September there would be enough progress to allow the Palestinians and Israel sit at the same negotiating table, if not sooner. The four months set aside for Mitchell's shuttle diplomacy and Israel's partial curb on settlement construction will have come to an end by September.
Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa said the Palestinians could not resume direct talks with Israel without guarantees.
After a meeting with Mitchell, Moussa told reporters: "We cannot automatically move from one negotiation to another without written guarantees.”
“I felt the Palestinian president was committed to the decisions of the ministerial council that the automatic transition from indirect to direct negotiations is not feasible," he said about his meeting with Abbas on Saturday.
The Arab League backed the indirect talks in March but supported their suspension after Israel said it would build more Jewish homes in annexed East Jerusalem.
It backed the talks again in May after the Palestinians said they received unspecified guarantees, but said direct negotiations would come only after a complete end to settlement building in occupied Palestinian lands.
Netanyahu had told reporters before flying to Cairo that he would discuss the prospects for direct talks with Mubarak.
The Palestinian leadership restated the conditions for the direct talks, suspended since Israel's offensive on Gaza in December 2008, after a meeting between the US envoy and Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah on Saturday.
Senior Palestinian official Yasser Abed Rabbo called for greater clarity from Washington about its position on new negotiations, insisting the Palestinians wanted to address the core issues of the Middle East conflict.
"The three-hour meeting between Abbas and Mitchell was important but there are several issues, most important among them the settlements and the situation in Jerusalem, that need more clarity," Abed Rabbo told reporters.
