Last update - 00:00 22/07/2007
FM Livni hold talks with Palestinian premier in Jerusalem
By Barak Ravid, Haaretz Correspondent, and the Associated Press
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni met with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayad in Jerusalem on Sunday, in the latest of a series of bilateral and mutilateral talks aimed at reviving the stalled Middle East peace process.
Also Sunday, Knesset Speaker Dalia Itzik held separate meetings with Jordanian Foreign Minister Abdul Ilah Khatib and Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in Amman.
Itzik's meetings with Khatib and Abbas were closed to the media, and few details have emerged.
But the press attache at the Israeli embassy in Amman, Itai Bardov, said discussions with Khatib and Abbas focused on ways to restart peace talks as well as on the Arab peace initiative, which envisions full Arab recognition of Israel in exchange for lands it captured in the 1967 Six-Day War.
Bardov told reporters that Itzik's talks with Abbas were held in a warm atmosphere, but declined to provide details.
He said Itzik and Khatib also discussed the agenda for their upcoming meeting in Israel on Wednesday that will include Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit. The Arab peace initiative is also expected to be the focus of those talks.
Jordan's ruler, King Abdullah II, is scheduled to meet U.S. President George W. Bush in Washington on Tuesday.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair will hold talks with Khatib in Amman on Monday. Blair was recently named envoy of the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators, which includes the United States, European Union, United Nations and Russia.
Also Monday, British Foreign Office Minister Kim Howells is scheduled to meet Jordanian officials in Amman.
Abdullah, who is on a tour of Canada and the United States, has enthusiastically embraced Bush's recent call for an international Middle East peace conference, telling the American leader last week that his endeavor was a positive step in the right direction.
Jordan, a key U.S. ally, has been rallying for restarting Palestinian-Israeli peacemaking based on the Arab peace initiative, which calls for Palestinian statehood.