Egypt's Mubarak to continue mediating Israeli-Palestinian direct talks
04:57 14/09/2010 SHARM EL SHEIKH, September 14 (RIA Novosti) - Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak will hold separate talks with Palestinian National Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu before the two meetin the Egyptian resort city of Sharm El Sheikh on Tuesday.
Mubarak is also expected to hold talks with U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who arrives in Sharm El Sheikh on Tuesday to mediate the second round of direct Israeli-Palestinian talks.
Direct talks between Abbas and Netanyahu resumed on September 2 in Washington, after an almost two-year hiatus, with the two leaders expressing their readiness to search for a compromise.
The sides agreed to direct talks in late August after the United States and other members of the Middle East Quartet of mediators (the UN, EU and Russia) promoted the initiative.
Israeli-Palestinian direct peace talks came to a halt in December 2008, when Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip in a bid to put an end to the firing of homemade rockets at southern Israel by Palestinian militants based in the enclave. The conflict left 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis dead.
The Palestinians have cited ongoing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, as the main obstacle to the peace process.
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