Palestinians and Israelis want direct peace negotiations to continue and call on the United States to bridge the dispute over West Bank settlements, the U.S. Middle East Envoy George Mitchell said after talks with Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak.
"Despite their differences, both the government of Israel and the Palestinian Authority have asked us to continue these discussions in an effort to establish the conditions under which they can continue direct negotiations. They both want to continue negotiations," Mitchell said in a statement posted on the website of the U.S. Embassy in Cairo. "They do not want to stop the talks."
Israel refused to extend its ten-month freeze on settlement construction in the occupied territories in the West Bank, which ended on September 26. The move has put under threat the direct Palestinian-Israeli talks that resumed in September after a long break.
Shortly before the ban expired, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas said Israel "must choose between peace and the continuation of settlements."
There are more than 400,000 Israelis living in some 120 settlements across the occupied Palestinian territory. Diplomats from the Middle East Quartet of international peace mediators have urged Israel to halt settlement building to save the direct peace talks.
However, Syrian President Bashar Assad said in time of a meeting with his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on October 2 that the major goal of the recently restored Palestinian-Israeli peace talks is to "shore up the positions of the U.S. President Barrack Obama inside the country."
CAIRO, October 3 (RIA Novosti)
