Joshua Kucera
Obama and Clinton Revive Mideast Peace Talks: With American prodding, Israeli and Palestinian leaders agree to a schedule of high-level meetings
U.S. presidents have been trying to bring peace to the
But Abbas and Netanyahu seemed determined too.
At a
Although there were the usual reasons for pessimism, there was perhaps a surprising amount of optimism when the talks began in earnest at the
If anything of substance was decided at the talks, however, it wasn't announced.
In particular, there was no apparent movement on the most sensitive immediate issue, the status of the partial Israeli moratorium on constructing new settlements in Palestinian territories. The moratorium is scheduled to expire on
But the two sides did agree to meet again
For now, there's headway on process.
But it's too soon to say whether that's a prelude to progress on the hard, substantive issues or to another disappointment.
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