Netanyahu meeting with Obama envoy postponed
ROME (Reuters) - A meeting scheduled to take place in Paris this week between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and U.S. President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy has been postponed, officials on both sides said on Tuesday.
The meeting between Netanyahu and Obama's envoy, George Mitchell, had been set to take place in Paris on Thursday and to focus on bridging differences over Israel's expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank, Israeli officials said.
Netanyahu spokesman Nir Hefetz, speaking to reporters travelling with the prime minister in Rome, said that Defence Minister Ehud Barak would visit Washington next Monday to meet with Mitchell. Hefetz said the delay would give both sides more time to "clarify some of the issues".
A senior U.S. official, who asked not to be named, said: "Mitchell and the prime minister jointly decided to postpone their meeting."
The official added that Barak and Mitchell would meet in Washington on Monday to discuss "a range of issues".
Obama has called for a settlement freeze.
Netanyahu has vowed to continue building in existing blocs to accommodate growing settler families.
© Thomson Reuters 2009 All rights reserved
One Year Later
A year after militants laid siege to Mumbai, the country still remains very vulnerable. Full Article | Full Coverage
Liberhan Commission Report
The government published a long awaited report, recently leaked, accusing BJP leaders of a role in the 1992 destruction of the Babri mosque in Ayodhya. Full Article
