The Israeli and Palestinian leaders held separate meetings with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo.
Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met the Egyptian President after he conferred with the US Middle East envoy on a push for direct talks between the two men. The two leaders did not make any statements after the meetings. The official MENA News Agency said Mubarak affirmed to Netanyahu the necessity of preparing the right conditions to achieve the vision of a two state solution on the ground. The Egyptian president earlier met US Middle East envoy George Mitchell to push for direct talks between Netanyahu and president Mahmud Abbas. According to Mubarak's office, the two men are not expected to meet, despite months of efforts by us envoy George Mitchell to end an 18-month hiatus in face-to-face negotiations. Mubarak and Mitchell discussed efforts to push forward the peace process and to prepare the necessary conditions for negotiations that achieve a two-state solution. The envoy met the Israeli Premier in Jerusalem earlier in the day. Netanyahu told reporters before flying to Cairo that he would discuss the prospects for direct talks with Mubarak, who has publicly supported the Palestinians' conditions for resuming the negotiations which they broke off in December 2008 after Israel launched a devastating offensive against Gaza. The Palestinian leadership restated the conditions after a meeting between the US envoy and Abbas in the west bank town of Ramallah. Senior Palestinian official Yasser abed Rabbo called for greater clarity from Washington about its position on new negotiations, insisting that the Palestinians wanted to address the core issues of the Middle East conflict. He said the three-hour meeting between Abbas and Mitchell was important but there are several issues, most important among them the settlements and the situation in Jerusalem that need more clarity. The European Union's top diplomat Catherine Ashton called for the further easing of Israel's four-year blockade of the Gaza strip during a visit to the impoverished enclave. Talking to reporters, she said the European Union was willing to send monitors to help operate the crossings. However, she said there was no proposal on the table to reopen Gaza's sole port.
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