Middle East leaders 'tackle core issues' in Egypt talks

Israeli and Palestinian leaders have held "serious discussions on core issues" during direct peace talks in Egypt, the US Middle East envoy says.

George Mitchell was talking after three-way talks in Egypt between the US, Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
He said all sides had reconfirmed their commitment to the negotiations.
The talks come amid concern over the imminent expiry of Israel's partial ban on West Bank settlement building.

Israel and the Palestinians

The two leaders have been joined in Sharm el-Sheikh by US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had earlier said Israel should extend its freeze on West Bank construction.

Palestinians say they will walk out if building on occupied territory resumes.
Mr Mitchell told reporters that Mr Abbas and Mr Netanyahu had held "serious discussions on the core issues" during the nearly two-hour meeting.
He gave few details of the talks but said all parties had "reiterated their intention to approach these negotiations in good faith and with a seriousness of purpose".
Mr Mitchell said the common goal remained "two states for two peoples," and that work was now underway to achieve a framework for that agreement.
'Difficult obstacles' Mrs Clinton had earlier expressed confidence in the process, saying there could be no progress without dialogue.

Key issues

The Jewish settlement of Pisgat Zeev, seen behind the controversial West Bank barrier, on the outskirts of Jerusalem (4 August 2010)

Without the negotiations, she said, there was "absolutely no way that the legitimate needs of Israel can be satisfied for the long term, nor that the aspirations of the Palestinians can be achieved".

"It is a question of how can we work toward making these direct negotiations break through the clear and difficult obstacles that stand in the way toward achieving a comprehensive peace," she said.
The US is hoping that both the Israelis and the Palestinians hold back from anything that could interfere with the negotiations, which resumed in Washington on 2 September after a 20-month break.
That includes ending the 10-month ban on settlement construction, but Mrs Clinton has also suggested that the Palestinians could make a gesture that would help Mr Netanyahu sell an extension to the Israeli public.
Mrs Clinton said there were various ways in which the "hurdle posed by the expiration of the original moratorium" could be overcome.
"Remember the goal is to work toward agreement on core issues like borders and territory that would, if agreed upon, eliminate the debate about settlements," the AFP news agency quoted her as saying.
Time short In remarks on Sunday Mr Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, said that some of the thousands of new homes planned for the West Bank might not be built, but hinted that the ban on all construction might not be renewed once it expires on 26 September.

Analysis

Kim Ghattas BBC News, Sharm-el-Sheikh

Hillary Clinton tried to strike an optimistic tone on her way to Sharm-el-Sheikh. She made clear the US believes the ban should be extended but also suggested that short of an extension, a compromise was possible.
She spoke of actions, symbolic or otherwise, that could be taken by both sides that would enable the talks to continue and make it easier for the Palestinians and Israelis to back down from their current stance.
American officials have refused to identify what ideas are being discussed but there is some suggestion the Palestinians could acknowledge the language used by the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington two weeks ago, when he spoke of "a homeland for the Jewish people, a homeland for the Palestinian people".
And if talks with the Israelis move quickly to the issue of the borders of a future Palestinian state, it could help President Mahmoud Abbas continue to negotiate, without a full moratorium extension, because defining the border would help identify which settlements Israeli will keep and which will have to go.

"We will not freeze the lives of the residents," he said.

However, the chief Palestinian negotiator said there could be no "half solutions" by Israel.
"If it chooses any kind of settlement building, this means that it has destroyed the whole peace process and it would be fully responsible for that," Saeb Erekat told the Associated Press.
Another problem facing negotiators is that only one part of the Palestinian territories is represented because the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, opposes the talks.
On Tuesday, a leading Hamas figure, Mahmoud Zahar, told the BBC the movement would not attempt to stop the talks because they would "reach an end, as previous ones" by themselves.
But he said no Palestinian, including those involved in the talks, believed they would produce a genuine result.
"We have to advise the Palestinian side that this process is just a process, just meeting, just talking, just speaking without achieving real substantive issues related to the Palestinian rights," he said.
The series of two- and three-way meetings in Sharm-el-Sheikh comes ahead of another trilateral meeting scheduled to take place in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
The BBC's Jon Leyne in Sharm-el-Sheikh says there does not appear to be much room for compromise, and time is running short.
But it seems unthinkable that these talks would collapse so soon, our correspondent adds, bearing in mind the amount of effort and political capital invested by the US government.

Israeli settlements on occupied land

More than 430,000 settlers in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, alongside 2.5 million Palestinians
20,000 settlers live in the Golan Heights
Settlements and the area they take up cover 40% of the West Bank
There are about 100 settlements not authorised by the Israeli government in the West Bank

In an indication of the ongoing conflict behind the talks, Israeli forces arrested 10 Palestinians in raids in the West Bank on Tuesday.

The Israeli army said the detainees were militants who had been planning terror attacks, but the Palestinian news agency said they were civilians.
Meanwhile, Hamas has accused the Palestinian Authority of detaining more of its supporters in the West Bank, following recent attacks on Jewish settlers. Hamas said 65 of its members were now in Palestinian custody.
Last week four Jewish settlers were killed when their car came under fire near the West Bank city of Hebron.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-11292265

Three Dead, Seven Injured by Artillery Shells in Two Incidents in Myanmar’s Mrauk-U

By MIN AUNG KHINE 2 December 2019 Sittwe, Rakhine State –Three Mrauk-U township residents died and four others were injured when an artillery shell struck their community in the Ale Zay quarter of Mrauk-U town on Monday afternoon after 4 p.m. A month-old girl, a 4-year-old boy and a 30-year-old woman died, according to Dr. Khin Maung Yin, the head of Mrauk-U hospital. He said, “A man and three other women were injured. One of the women sustained severe injures to her left leg and her right knee was dislocated. The injured will be operated on.” Details of what occurred were not yet known. A few hours earlier, three civilians were injured when an artillery shell fell on the village of Na Leik in Mrauk-U Township, Rakhine State, western Myanmar, on Monday at around 1 p.m., according to Yan Aung Pyin village-tract administrator U Sein Hla Aung. Two females, aged 13 and 27, and an 18-year-old male were injured in the incident, he said. Three people were hit by shrapnel and we have...

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