Mitchell meets Egypt’s Mubarak, Jordan’s Abdullah on endeavors to salvage peace march

U.S. envoy appeals to all parties in region to shoulder responsibilities

Israel tries to dodge trilateral summit in New York

Israelis dig tunnel network beneath Al-Aqsa Mosque

Britain’s labor unions boycott Israeli goods

US envoy George Mitchell held talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian monarch King Abdullah II on Thursday in his bid to push for a resumption of Arab-Israeli peace talks. After meetings with Mubarak, Foreign Minister Ahmad Abul-Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman that lasted more than two hours, Mitchell made a short statement to reporters.

“We reiterated the shared commitment of the United States and Egypt to comprehensive peace in the Middle East including an end to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict based on a two-state solution,” Mitchell said.

“The United States is asking all the parties – Israelis, Palestinians and the Arab states – to take responsibility for peace through concrete actions that will help create a positive context for the re-launch of negotiations,” he added.

Mitchell met with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday and will meet him again on Friday to push for a West Bank settlement freeze, a key demand of the US and the Palestinians.

Mitchell did not comment on whether a planned meeting at next week’s United Nations General Assembly between US President Barack Obama, Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would go ahead.

US President Barack Obama has been demanding for months that Israel halt all settlement building in the occupied West Bank, a freeze that would satisfy Palestinian conditions for restarting peace talks and show the Muslim world that Washington is serious about improving ties.

But hawkish Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered only a temporary moratorium that would not apply to occupied East Jerusalem or some 2,500 homes already being built.

Abbas has made a resumption of peace negotiations with Israel, suspended since December, conditional on halting the settlement activity.

Mubarak called on Israel to stop all settlement activities and resume talks with Palestinians in a meeting with Netanyahu in Cairo on Sunday.

Mitchell met later in the day with Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

Jordan’s monarch warned that Israel’s settlement plans threaten peace talks with the Palestinians as well chances to create an independent state.

“Efforts should be focused on preventing any Israeli schemes to obstruct peace talks and continue settlement building that would kill chances to establish an independent Palestinian state,” the king told visiting US Middle East envoy George Mitchell at a meeting.

Mitchell said on Thursday that the Middle East region should "take responsibility" and the necessary steps to resume the Arab-Israeli peace talks.

After meeting Mubarak Thursday, Mitchell – on his fifth tour of the region since January – had left for Jordan to continue talks with Arab states in the region, and was due to return to Israel Friday.

The Palestinians are demanding a total freeze of all Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank, while Netanyahu has said he is willing to accept only a temporary and limited moratorium.

The Israeli premier has said that, while he continues the policies of previous governments to build no new settlements, he will also allow the construction of nearly 3,000 new apartments within existing ones. Building in Jewish neighborhoods of East Jerusalem will also continue, he has vowed.

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat reiterated late Tuesday that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas would not meet with Netanyahu without an Israeli freeze on all settlement activities including building to accommodate population expansion, or so-called "natural growth."

Netanyahu had said on Wednesday that it was unclear if a three-way summit with the United States and Palestinian leaders would go ahead in New York.

"The three-way meeting has not been set yet. But I'll go anyway and give my speech on Thursday at the (UN General) Assembly," Netanyahu told reporters.

Amid US mediation efforts, there was speculation Netanyahu might meet US President Barack Obama and Palestinian President Abbas on the sidelines of the General Assembly in New York.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell has been meeting with Netanyahu and Abbas this week in an attempt to reach a compromise on the issue of Israeli settlement building in the West Bank.

Mitchell is seeking Israeli agreement on some kind of a moratorium on settlement construction that would be acceptable to the Palestinians and enable the resumption of peace talks suspended in late December after Israel unleashed an assault on the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile, Netanyahu said he would not attend any General Assembly session, including Obama's speech, if Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad were taking part.

Israel and Iran are considered arch-enemies, and Ahmadinejad has repeatedly said the Jewish state should be "wiped off the map."

Meanwhile, the Al-Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage said on Friday that Israeli authorities had begun excavation to build a tunnel near Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem.

The foundation, in a press statement, said the tunnel was being built underneath the Arab neighborhood of Silwan and is now 120 meters long, 1.5 meters wide and 3 meters high. The foundation added that the tunnel was heading north toward Al-Aqsa Mosque.

It said the tunnel would be connected with another one being built underneath Silwan neighborhood, with the aim of eventually connecting it with the network of tunnels that leads to Al-Aqsa Mosque. According to the foundation, the Israeli Antiquities Authority and the right-wing group Elad with the help of Jewish occupiers are working six days a week to complete the tunnel. The organization warned that the use of heavy machines was weakening the foundations of Al-Aqsa Mosque and endangering the houses in Silwan neighborhood.

The foundation stressed that the Israeli move aimed at Judaizing Jerusalem and the Al-Aqsa Mosque surroundings.

The objective of the excavation is to demolish Al-Aqsa Mosque and to build the so-called second temple on the ruins of Al-Aqsa, the foundation said.

It explained that Israeli authorities were carrying out the excavations in order to construct trade and tourism facilities and that some of these facilities will start underground.

The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem and Palestine Sheikh Mohammed Hussein criticized the Israeli move. Speaking to Arab News, he said that Tel Aviv was provoking Muslims by building a tunnel near Al-Aqsa in the holy month of Ramadan.

Hussein and the Al-Aqsa Foundation have urged Muslim states to take action to stop the Israeli excavation in the area.

Meanwhile, around 100,000 Palestinians reached Al-Aqsa Mosque for Friday prayers.

Hussein told Arab News that Israeli occupation forces barred thousands of worshippers from reaching the mosque.

Since early Friday morning, thousands of Palestinians from across the northern West Bank cities waited in queues to be allowed entry.

In London, British labor unions agreed Thursday to support a boycott of some Israeli goods in response to the offensive in Gaza.

The boycott, approved at the annual conference of the Trades Union Congress, calls for a ban on importing goods produced in some Israeli settlements, an end to arms trading with Israel, and divestment by from some companies.

Union officials said the boycott would target products including dates, herbs, fruit and vegetables grown in Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

"We will support a boycott of those goods and agricultural products that originate in illegal settlements through developing an effective, targeted consumer-led boycott campaign," the TUC said in a statement.

Israel's ambassador to the U.K., Ron Prosor, called the decision one-sided.

"The TUC's leaders should hang their heads in shame at this reckless call for a boycott," he said in a statement. "They have betrayed their own constituency by allowing the TUC to be hijacked as a political tool for extremists."

He said the boycott statement failed to acknowledge that Israel has an obligation to protect its citizens from terror, and failed to call on Gaza's rulers or the Arab world to address Israel's legitimate security concerns.

Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor also criticized the move.

"Those who think they can promote peace and reconciliation through boycotting a democratic country will only harm the cause they pretend to serve," he said. "All this does is damage the credibility of those who launched the boycott."

The TUC is the umbrella organization of 58 British labor unions, representing about 6.5 million workers.

Members of the group's general council held often-fractious talks on the motion — originally proposed by the Fire Brigades Union — at an annual conference in Liverpool, northern England.

The boycott was proposed in response to Israel's December-January offensive in Gaza, in which about 1,400 Palestinians, including hundreds of civilians, and 13 Israelis, including four civilians, died. Israel launched the offensive to halt years of rocket fire by Gaza militants on southern Israeli towns.

A U.N. investigation concluded earlier this week that Israel and Palestinian armed groups, "committed actions amounting to war crimes, possibly crimes against humanity," in the Gaza conflict.

The report, by a committee led by former South African judge Richard Goldstone, sparked outrage in Israel. Israeli President Shimon Peres said the report "makes a mockery of history" and "draws no distinction between the attacker and the attacked."

Two years ago, Britain's largest union of college teachers attempted to organize a boycott of Israeli universities, which would have led to a halt on funding, visits and conferences with Israeli institutions.

The University and College Union was forced to abandon the plan because it breached discrimination laws.