[01/September/2010]

WASHINGTON, Sept 1 (Saba) -- In a personal effort to achieve a Middle East peace agreement within a year, President Barack Obama on Wednesday will hold separate bilateral meetings in the Oval Office with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, King Abdullah of Jordan, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel, the White House announced on Tuesday night, according to Kuwait News Agency (KUNA).

In the afternoon, Obama will deliver a statement in the White House Rose Garden, and later in the afternoon, the President and visiting leaders will deliver statements to the press in the East Room of the White House.

In the evening, Obama will host a working dinner for the visiting leaders in the White House.

Last week, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton invited Abbas and Netanyahu to Washington to resume direct negotiations on Thursday "to resolve all final-status issues," said George Mitchell, U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, in remarks on Tuesday that were embargoed until Tuesday night.

"Egypt and Jordan have a critical role to play, and their continued leadership and commitment to peace will be essential to success," Mitchell said.

Since the beginning of the Obama administration in January 2009, "we have worked with the Israelis, the Palestinians and our international partners to advance the cause of comprehensive peace in the Middle East, including the two-state solution, which ensures security and dignity for Israelis and Palestinians," he said.

"We are pleased that negotiations will be relaunched after a hiatus of more than a year and a half, and we will engage with perseverance and patience to try to bring them to a successful conclusion," he added.

Asked about the importance of Israeli officials not going forward with additional settlements in the Palestinian territories after the settlement freeze ends on September 26, Mitchell said, "We have always made clear that the parties should promote an environment that is conducive to negotiations. As we move forward, it is important that actions by all sides help to advance our effort, not hinder it."

Asked why Syria was not included in the latest Mideast talks, Mitchell said U.S. officials "continue to try to engage Israel and Syria in discussions and negotiations that would lead to peace there and also Israel and Lebanon." Two days after becoming U.S. President in early 2009, Obama "referred to comprehensive peace and defined it as Israel and Palestinians, Israel and Syria, Israel and Lebanon, and Israel at peace with and having normal relations with all of its Arab neighbors," Mitchell said. "And that remains our objective." Netanyahu has stated privately and publicly that he hopes to meet with Abbas about every two weeks, Mitchell noted.

"We think that is a sensible approach, which we hope is undertaken and that, in addition to that, there will be meetings at other levels on a consistent basis," he said.
U.S. officials "want to establish this process going forward and to maintain it in an intense way at several levels of engagement," Mitchell said.
While Hamas was not expected to play a role "in this immediate process," Mitchell said, "we welcome the full participation by Hamas and all relevant parties once they comply with the basic requirements of democracy and nonviolence that are, of course, a prerequisite to engage in these serious types of discussions." Obama will be "fully and actively a participant in the process, as necessary," Mitchell said. "He has many, many important obligations, but he places a high priority on comprehensive peace in the Middle East." Asked about the role Iran might play in the Mideast peace process, Mitchell said Iran was "an important issue and one which has an impact on this process, " but that he preferred to defer to other U.S. officials "who are directly involved in the specific formulation and implementation of policy toward Iran.
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