Gates in Israel, Mitchell in Cairo to boost peace
United States Defense Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Israel on Monday on a short visit aimed at breathing life into faltering Mideast peace talks as Middle East envoy George Mitchell reached Egypt on the latest leg of a regional tour after stops in Israel and Syria.
Gates is expected to hold talks with the Israeli officials as Washington bids to jumpstart stalled peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
The Pentagon chief will meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Ehud Barak also to discuss bilateral defense issues including missile defense and efforts to curb Iran’s nuclear ambitions, a senior U.S. defense official said.
Meantime, Mitchell will meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the president’s office said, after the U.S. envoy held talks with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad in Damascus and Israel’s Barak in Tel Aviv.
Washington is committed to a “comprehensive peace in the Middle East and that includes Israel and Palestine, Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon and normal relations with all countries in the regions,” Barak’s office quoted Mitchell as saying after the two met in Tel Aviv.
Earlier in Damascus the former U.S. senator said that he “just completed a very candid and positive conversation with President Assad.”
“I discussed with President Assad the prospects for moving forward on our goals of comprehensive peace in the region and improved bilateral ties between Syria and the United States,” he said.
Mitchell’s Middle East swing is also scheduled to include a meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.
Mitchell’s and Gates’ Mideast trips come as part of a diplomatic push that will also see National Security Advisor James Jones make a three-day trip beginning on Tuesday.
Obama is determined to reach a comprehensive peace between Israel and all its Arab neighbors in order to guarantee “stability, security and prosperity” in the region, Mitchell said in Damascus.
Obama has moved to re-engage Damascus as part of a bid to breathe new life into the faltering Middle East peace process.
Syria and Israel held four rounds of preliminary negotiations through Turkish mediators last year but Syria broke them off in December amid Israel’s deadly offensive against the Gaza Strip.
Assad reiterated the Syrian demand in his talks with Mitchell, insisting on “the right of Arabs to recover their occupied land through a just and comprehensive peace based on international resolutions and the principle of land for peace,” the official Syrian Arab News Agency said.
The flurry of diplomatic activity comes amid mounting friction between Israel and Washington over the U.S. demand for a halt to Jewish settlement activity in the occupied West Bank, including annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
Netanyahu said before the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that the U.S. envoys’ visits reflect the “strong and broad relationship between Israel and the United States.”
But he acknowledged there were also differences.
Egypt, which has been mediating between rival Palestinian groups Fatah and Hamas and between Israel and Hamas for a prisoner swap that would release an Israeli soldier held in Gaza, is seen as key to encouraging Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations.
Egyptian officials have said the talks cannot be expected to fully resume in the absence of a unified Palestinian government.
Source: alarabiya
