Middle East peace deal hopes rise
ISRAELI and Palestinian leaders last night agreed to work for a permanent peace deal, scheduling a second round of direct talks later this month.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet again on September 14 and 15 in the Middle East, probably at the Egyptian Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheik. US Middle East envoy George Mitchell and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton are to attend the meeting where a pact will be forged that could lead to a final agreement in a year’s time.
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Former Prime Minister Tony Blair, acting as a special envoy for the European Union and the United Nations, said last night that President Barack Obama had more chance of winning peace than his predecessor George W Bush.
Mr Blair declared: “No matter how many setbacks you have, you never give up.”
Mrs Clinton said after the talks at the State Department in Washington that Netanyahu and Abbas were the men to “bring peace and a two-state solution to the Middle East”.
Mr Mitchell said the framework agreement would lay out the “fundamental compromises” needed for a final settlement. Those compromises will involve the borders of an eventual Palestinian state, the political status of Jerusalem, the fate of Palestinian refugees and security.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu with Hillary Clinton and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at the State Department in Washington yesterday