Global General

Obama invites Abbas to visit US in May

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2010-04-25 21:58

RAMALLAH -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas received an invitation from US President Barack Obama to visit Washington next month, a Palestinian official said Sunday.

"The exact date is not yet set up but it will be in May," Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator, told Xinhua. He added that George Mitchell, the US envoy to the Middle East peace process, carried the invitation to Mr. Abbas who accepted it.

It will be Abbas' second visit to the United States since President Obama took office last year. However, it comes at a time that Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are stalled.

Last month, Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) approved a US offer to start proximity talks with Israel, but an Israeli decision to build 1,600 houses in East Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want as their future capital, prevented the indirect talks from starting.

But Israel's Ha'aretz newspaper reported on Sunday that the proximity talks would begin in the first half of May and Washington would be the mediator. However, Erekat said that the beginning depends "on the Israeli government's suspension of all provocative settlement activities."

"The negotiations are not linked to a time; they are subject to an attitude and the Palestinian leadership is still waiting the Israeli attitude which would stop all provocative acts," Mr. Erekat added.

Mitchell arrived in the region on Thursday and met Israeli and Palestinian leaders in a bid to launch the indirect talks. According to Palestinian Al-Ayyam daily, Mitchell could not get an Israeli commitment to cease settlement expansions, but carried a promise from US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to work on resolving the conflict on two-state solution.