US envoy George Mitchell appeared Friday to have failed to secure a key deal on Jewish settlements aimed at paving the way for a resumption of Middle East peace negotiations.
Map of the occupied West Bank, locating planned expansions of Israel settle... The former senator shuttled between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday, after having met with both leaders earlier this week. He has been trying to wrest a compromise on the thorny issue that would have led to a three-way meeting between Netanyahu, Abbas and US President Barack Obama on the sidelines of next week's UN General Assembly. "Mitchell told us he did not reach an agreement with the Israelis on freezing settlements," key Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told reporters after Mitchell held talks with Abbas in the occupied West Bank. Mitchell met with Abbas after huddling with Netanyahu in the morning and was to hold a second meeting with the premier in Jerusalem later in the day. He has been aiming to get some kind of an 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. Netanyahu has so far rebuffed US calls to freeze settlement construction in the West Bank, including annexed east Jerusalem, and Palestinians are sticking to their demand for such a halt before negotiations can resume. Abbas told Mitchell that "the issue of a settlement halt is not up for compromise," Erakat said.