WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama's national security adviser will visit the Middle East for high-level talks next week, joining a renewed U.S. effort to coax Israel and the Palestinians to resume long-stalled peace talks.
The trip by Jim Jones, a top foreign policy aide, will include a stop in Saudi Arabia and coincides with travels by George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy for Middle East peace, to Europe this week and then to the region later in the month.
Obama has promised to make Israeli-Palestinian peacemaking a high priority but has so far made little progress getting the two sides back to the negotiating table.
Underscoring the difficulties, Mitchell's suggestion that Washington could penalize U.S. ally Israel financially to force it to make concessions to the Palestinians drew Israeli ire on Sunday. Normally solid U.S.-Israeli relations have shown strain under Obama's presidency.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton sought to reinvigorate diplomatic efforts in meetings in Washington last week with the foreign ministers of Egypt and Jordan.
She reiterated U.S. calls for Israel and the Palestinians to resume peace talks, urging them to focus on borders and the status of Jerusalem, suggesting this could break their deadlock over Jewish settlement building.
Seeking to add momentum, Jones was also ordered to the region. "Gen. Jones will discuss the full range of regional challenges and opportunities at this critical time in the Middle East," said White House spokesman Mike Hammer.
Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu have clashed over the president's demand -- since softened -- that Israel halt all settlement activity on land captured in the 1967 war, in line with a 2003 U.S.-backed peace "road map" that also called on the Palestinians to rein in militants.
"Under American law, the United States can withhold support on loan guarantees to Israel," George Mitchell said in U.S. television interview on Wednesday after being asked about the kind of pressure that could be brought to bear on Israel.
Over the past two decades, Israel has received U.S. guarantees covering billions of dollars in loans, underwriting that has enabled it to raise money overseas more cheaply.
Though such guarantees have slipped in importance and Mitchell made clear no sanctions were being considered, his remarks added to the recent discord to U.S.-Israeli ties.
(Reporting by Matt Spetalnick; editing by Todd Eastham)
Front Page Features