Jerusalem - Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was leaving Monday for a visit to the United States, as Israeli officials played down the three-way meeting he would hold with President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The parley, the first between Netanyahu and Abbas since the Israeli leader assumed office at the end of March, comes despite Palestinian insistence that no meeting would take place unless Israel puts a complete freeze on all construction in its West Bank settlements.
Netanyahu has refused this demand, even though Abbas has also stipulated it as a condition for renewing peace talks, suspended late last year as Israel entered its election campaign.
Obama's envoy, George Mitchell, was unable to secure an agreement on the issue, despite shuttling between Jerusalem and Ramallah last week.
However, the White House announced Saturday night that the trilateral meeting would nonetheless take place in New York on Tuesday.
Israeli officials were quoted Monday as saying the Obama- Netanyahu-Abbas parley would be a "photo-opportunity" only, and cautioned against expecting it to lead to a renewal of peace talks.
"The meeting will not inaugurate [renewed] negotiations and will not involve any significant details," Israel's Ha'aretz daily quoted the unnamed officials as saying. "The differences on the issue of the settlements and the framework of the talks remain deep."
Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said in a statement Monday that Palestinians welcomed Obama's "personal intervention" and continued to support the resumption of peace talks.
He said the Palestinians "remain hopeful that President Obama's intervention will provide the motivation needed to bring Israel back to the negotiating table based on the implementation of a comprehensive settlement freeze, and convince Israel to accept the resumption of permanent status negotiations on all core issues without exception."
