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Summary
US envoy George Mitchell on Thursday held a second consecutive day of talks with Israeli leaders in his latest diplomatic push he hopes will lead to indirect Israeli-Palestinian talks within days. Mitchell and hawkish Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were set to resume in the evening discussions they started on Wednesday, ahead of the US envoys planned meeting with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas on Friday. He also met Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak for about an hour in Tel Aviv on Thursday.They discussed ways to start the proximity talks and to use them as a step towards direct talks between the Israel and the Palestinians, Baraks office said. While it appears likely the indirect talks, called off at the last minute in March, will now start within days, there was little if any expectation they would produce tangible results other than a possible resumption of direct negotiations. Direct talks resumed after a seven-year hiatus in November 2007 but had made little visible progress when they collapsed again just over a year later. The Palestine Liberation Organisation is due to decide on Saturday whether to proceed with the indirect talks, after which Mitchell will hold a final meeting with Abbas, a senior Palestinian official said. At that meeting, Abbas will convey to the US envoy the Palestinians definitive answer on the talks, spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said. Mitchell is then expected to make a formal announcement about the start of the proximity talks on Saturday evening or on Sunday before he returns to Washington, the spokesman said. Mitchell was also due to meet Israeli President Shimon Peres, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and opposition leader Tzipi Livni on Friday before heading to the West Bank town of Ramallah for the evening talks with Abbas. The Palestinians had agreed in March to take part in proximity talks but pulled out after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem. After receiving US assurances the Jerusalem settlement expansion plan would be shelved, the Palestinians eventually agreed to consider a new attempt at proximity talks. They want east Jerusalem as the capital of their promised state but Israel considers all of the Holy City to be its eternal and indivisible capital.
