US Mediates in Attempt to Thaw Middle East Tension

JERUSALEM (March 7) --- A new flurry of diplomacy to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and a visit this week by Vice President Joe Biden come after more than a year of a freeze in the discussions.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met visiting U.S. special envoy George Mitchell for four hours today. The two men will meet again Monday and then Mitchell will see Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

"If there is a desire to get to direct talks through a corridor then I think the sooner the better," Netanyahu, referring to U.S.-mediated "proximity talks," told reporters at the start of his meeting with Mitchell.

Mitchell said he hoped for a "credible, serious, constructive process" leading to comprehensive peace in the Middle East. Mitchell will now shuttle between Jerusalem and Ramallah trying to reach an agreement on a framework for an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.

On the Palestinian side, a senior Palestinian decision-making body approved a proposal allowing Abbas to participate in proximity talks. That came after the Arab League endorsed the idea, saying they would give four months for the talks to make significant progress.

"This peace process cannot go on forever," said Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat. "Now it's time for decisions."

The decision to agree to talks at all was a concession by Palestinians, who said they would not resume talks with Israel until Israel froze all settlement expansion in the West Bank. Netanyahu has ordered a slowdown in building, but it is far from a complete freeze.

On both sides, there is little optimism that there will be a breakthrough.

"George Mitchell met Mahmoud Abbas 14 times and there was no progress," Bassam al-Shuyukh, a former senior Fatah official in East Jerusalem told Israel Radio. "The only difference now is that President Obama pressured him into agreeing to talks."

A former senior Israeli official agreed.

"There are only five people who think these talks will work and three of them live in the White House," said former national security council head Uzi Dayan. "At the same time talking is better than shooting."

That's the same message that Biden brings with him when he arrives in Israel Monday. However, his focus is not the Palestinians, but Iran. The vice president, the most senior official to visit Israel since President Barack Obama took office, is expected to make it clear to his Israeli hosts that the U.S. does not want Israel to launch a unilateral military strike on Iran. Israeli officials do not believe that sanctions will stop Iran's efforts to become a nuclear power. Netanyahu has repeatedly said that a nuclear Iran is an existential threat for Israel.

The U.S., however, believes that stronger sanctions will deter Iran. They also worry that an Israeli strike could ignite a new Middle East war -- the last thing the U.S .needs with all of the other issues, including Iraq and Afghanistan on its agenda.