A FLURRY of diplomatic activity is planned in the Middle East over the next couple of weeks amid growing indications that the deadlock in the peace process may be about to end.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas will travel to Cairo early next week for talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
Washington and Cairo are closely co-ordinating efforts to jump-start the stalled Israeli-Palestinian final-status peace talks. If there is sufficient progress at the Abbas-Mubarak meeting, Egyptian foreign minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and Egyptian intelligence chief Omar Suleiman will travel to Washington to brief the US administration on the developments.
US Middle East envoy George Mitchell is also due in the region next week for talks in Ramallah, Jerusalem and Cairo.
The diplomatic push follows the visit to Cairo on Tuesday by Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu. The Israeli leader tried to convince president Mubarak, a key mediator in the past between Israel and the Palestinians, that Jerusalem is serious about reaching a land-for-peace deal with the Palestinians, and does not merely seek to resume peace talks in order to drag out the negotiations.
Israeli officials confirmed that Mr Netanyahu proposed that Egypt host a peace summit later this month at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, to be attended by himself and Mr Abbas.
Nabil Abu Rdainah, an aide to Mr Abbas, said the region “will see important political activity in the next two weeks”. Israeli officials confirmed that the resumption of peace talks was a possibility.
Palestinian sources say the talks will cover all the core issues, including Jerusalem and the fate of Palestinian refugees, with the aim being to reach a comprehensive agreement within a set timeframe resulting in the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Barack Obama, on assuming the US presidency, declared that the goal of a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians would be one of his top foreign policy objectives. However, administration officials have so far been unable to persuade the sides to resume the talks that were broken off a year ago after Israel’s military campaign in Gaza.
President Abbas linked a resumption of talks to a total cessation of construction by Israel in the occupied West Bank.
Mr Netanyahu declared a 10-month settlement building moratorium, but this was rejected by the Palestinian leadership because projects already under way and building in Jerusalem were not covered by the freeze.
On Thursday, Mr Abbas urged Israelis to accept the Palestinian hand stretched out for peace, saying “peace between us should be based on the principle of your withdrawal from our land occupied in 1967, including East Jerusalem”.
Speaking in Ramallah at a gathering marking the 45th anniversary of the Fatah movement, Mr Abbas vowed that the Palestinians would continue to fight for their freedom using what he termed “legitimate resistance guaranteed by international law”.
He criticised recent Israeli military raids in the West Bank and on the Gaza border as threatening Palestinian security and stability.