President Mubarak, King Abdullah of Jordan discuss region's developments, peaceful solution, outcome of monarch's meeting with Obama

Sultan Qaboos discusses with envoy Ross regional situation

Washington steps up pressures on Israel into accepting two-state deal

Ahead of meeting with Obama, Netanyahu speaks of peace "surprise"

Israeli labor party time bomb inside Natanyahu government

Jordan's King Abdullah II met with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo on Tuesday to discuss how to restart "serious and direct negotiations" between Israelis and Palestinians. King Abdullah and Mubarak discussed means of restarting "serious and direct negotiations" between Israelis and Palestinians, Jordanian Foreign Minister Ali Nasser told reporters after the meeting.

The two discussed how "to arrive at a comprehensive and lasting peace in the region on the basis of the relevant references, foremost among them, the Arab peace initiative," Nasser said.

Abdullah also briefed Mubarak on his discussions with US President Barack Obama in Washington on April 21, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit said at the same press conference.

Mubarak is expected to pay a visit to Washington to meet Obama at the end of the month.

The meeting between Abdullah and Mubarak, who lead the only two Arab countries that have signed peace treaties with Israel, comes a day after talks in Amman between the monarch and Syrian Foreign Minister Walid al-Muallem, who relayed a message to King Abdullah from Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

The Jordanian monarch also visited Saudi Arabia last week, where he briefed Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah on the substance of his talks with Obama.

Israel, Syria, Lebanon and other Arab nations would sit down together to try to resolve the Middle East conflict under a new "combined approach" currently under discussion with the U.S., Jordan's king said Wednesday.

The idea is the latest indication that the Obama administration is trying to build on the shared interest of its Arab allies and Israel in blunting the threat from Iran. As part of the new strategy, Arab diplomats said this week that the U.S. has asked the 22-member Arab League to amend a 2002 peace initiative to make it more palatable to Israel.

"What we are discussing today is a combined approach of bringing together Arabs, Europeans and the United States as a team to create the circumstances over the next several months that allow Israelis and Palestinians to sit at the table, but also with Lebanese, Syrians and Arab nations," Jordan's King Abdullah told a news conference in Berlin.

"So it is a packaged effort that we are going to work on ... and I would imagine that the plan will be more articulated by the president of the United States after (Israeli) Prime Minister Netanyahu's visit to Washington," Abdullah added.

Benjamin Netanyahu is expected to meet President Barack Obama on May 18 to push for a tough U.S. stance on Iran. Israel argues that progress in peace with the Palestinians can't happen unless Iran is reined in.

International Mideast envoy Tony Blair also said Wednesday that the Obama administration and international negotiators are drafting a new strategy for Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and expect to unveil it within six weeks. He did not provide any further details, however.

The Obama administration's efforts to start a dialogue with Iran have sent ripples of concern through the capitals of America's closest Arab allies, who accuse Tehran of playing a destabilizing role in the Middle East. In a rare confluence of interests with its Arab neighbors, Israel has also singled out Iran as the greatest threat to stability in the region.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who was in Saudi Arabia and Egypt this week, has sought to reassure the Arab allies that any contacts with Iran would be "open and transparent" and regional allies would be kept informed "so nobody gets surprised."

Arab diplomats say the Americans are pressing Arabs to amend their 2002 peace initiative to make it more acceptable to Israel. The plan — first proposed by Saudi Arabia in 2002 — called for exchange of Arab land occupied by Israel in the 1967 war for normalized relations with Arab countries.

Later Arabs added an insistence on the right of Palestinian refugees who lost their homes in Mideast wars to return to what is now Israel.

Several diplomats, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to talk to the media, said the Americans are asking the Arab nations to drop the right of return and agree to either resettle the refugees in the host countries or in the Palestinian territories.

Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa said rejected that suggestion.

"There is no amendment to this initiative. We have received nothing from the other side. ... no initiative no response and no proper talking about peace, so why should we change or amend and for what reason," he told The Associated Press in an interview.

Moussa also said the U.S. should not try to link Iran with other Middle East conflicts.

"The question of Iran should be separate from the Arab-Israel conflict," Moussa said.

Abdullah also suggested a resolution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would make 57 Muslim nations that do not recognize Israel go into direct negotiations with the Israelis. That was an apparent reference to the Saudi-based Organization of the Islamic Conference, a group that Iran plays a key role in.

An Israeli government official welcomed the involvement of the Arab allies in the peace process.

"We see a very important role that moderate Arab states, countries like Jordan, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and others can play in the process, in strengthening the peace process. We believe their more direct involvement in the peace process can be positive and can help energize the process of reconciliation between us and the Palestinians," said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue.

Gates on Tuesday knocked down speculation in the Mideast that the U.S. is secretly forging a "grand bargain" to settle the Mideast conflict by pressing Israel to make concessions to the Palestinians, perhaps a Palestinian state, in exchange for Iran rolling back its nuclear program.

The Obama administration has been reaching out to Iran in a marked shift after shunning contacts for decades. But U.S. allies such as Egypt and Saudi Arabia, as well as Israel, say Tehran is not a positive force in the region with its support for Islamic militant groups such as Hamas in Gaza and Hezbollah in Lebanon.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul-Gheit conveyed the concerns this week when U.S. envoy Dennis Ross, who is dealing with Iran, visited Cairo.

"Iran's behavior in the region is negative in many aspects and does not help in advancing security, stability and peace," he told Ross.

Israel and the U.S. suspect Iran's program to enrich uranium is aimed at developing nuclear weapons — a concern shared by the oil rich Gulf nations.

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas said he will tell US President Barack Obama this month that resuming peace talks with Israel hinges on its approval of a two-state solution.

“We will go the Washington on May 28 to talk with the US administration about our conditions to resume peace negotiations with Israel in the future,” Abbas was quoted in a palace statement after meeting Jordan’s King Abdullah II.

“Our conditions and demands are based on the two-state solution and Israel’s halt of settlement building as well as house demolitions. These are our demands and the demands of the Americans themselves to resume the talks.”

Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory - supported by the largely right-wing government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — are one of the main stumbling blocks in the troubled Middle East peace process.

Netanyahu has so far failed to publicly endorse the creation of a Palestinian state, a principle strongly backed by the White House.

The Palestinians are demanding that Netanyahu back a two-state solution — to which Israel committed itself under the road map peace plan launched by the international community in 2003 - before the two sides resume talks.

Abbas said his talks with King Abdullah focused on the outcome of the monarch’s talks with Obama at the White House on April 21.

Abbas talked Wednesday with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab League (AL) chief Amr Moussa separately to coordinate Arab stances to push forward the peace process with Israel.

Speaking at a news conference after talks with Mubarak, Abbas said his consultations with Mubarak were aimed to draw up a comprehensive Arab plan to solve all issues plaguing the Middle East.

"We prepared matters to make a harmony in the Arab situation and Jordanian King Abdullah II visited Washington recently speaking for the Arabs. We need to form an integrated Arab plan to solve the Middle East issue, not only the Palestinian issue but also all the occupations by Israel," said Abbas.

Both Abbas and Mubarak are scheduled to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington in the upcoming weeks.

Arab foreign ministers would hold an emergency meeting on Thursday to define the Arab position towards the Jewish state.

When asked to elaborate the "Arab plan" to be presented to Obama, Abbas said, "mainly the Arab Peace Initiative and the Road Map."

The Arab peace initiative calls on Israel to withdraw from all the lands it captured in the 1967 war in exchange for a full peace with all Arab states.

The territories Israel would have to cede comprises the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, which would become the Palestinian state; the Golan Heights that would be returned to Syria; and a couple of small pockets of land where the borders of Syria, Israel and Lebanon meet. Additionally, Israel would have to give up control of Eastern Jerusalem, which would be most likely to become the Palestinian capital.

The Road Map plan was proposed by former U.S. President George W. Bush in 2002 to end the chronic Israeli-Palestinian conflict and in April 2003, the United Nations adopted the long-awaited Road Map, which calls on the Palestinians to renounce violence and the Jewish state to halt its settlement on occupied lands.

But the plan was put into a standstill five months later due to violence between Israel and Palestinian militant groups.

Regarding Israel's proposal of economic peace, security cooperation, and a settlement not based on the two-state solution, Abbas said, "economic cooperation between the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) and Israel is very important but not enough."

"The political talks are essential and enough," he added, affirming that these talks can not start while settlements and outposts construction continues.

As for the Palestinian reconciliation talks, he voiced support for the Egyptian efforts, hoping that it could result in a national unity government able to shoulder the responsibilities of Gaza reconstruction and hold elections before Jan. 24.

Meanwhile, Abbas also discussed the latest developments on the Palestinian arena with AL Secretary General Moussa.

Regarding an alleged plan to ask incumbent Prime Minister Salam Fayyad to form a new government that includes all Palestinian factions, Abbas said the government led by Fayyad whose resignation was not accepted would make some changes.

Also in the day, a Palestinian official said Abbas will form a new government if rival Fatah and Hamas fail to reach an agreement in the upcoming round of dialogue slated for mid May.

If the dialogue, which will convene in Cairo on May 16-19, fails, "the president will form a new government which will come up with a new strategy in dealing with Hamas and the internal Palestinian situation," said Abbas Zaki, the Palestinian ambassador to Lebanon.

Zaki said the new Palestinian government is expected to be formed prior to Abbas' visit to Washington on May 28.

Earlier reports said Abbas will ask Fayyad, who now heads a Palestinian government created in the wake of Hamas' violent takeover of Gaza in 2007, to form an expanded government in the West Bank in case that Cairo dialogue fails.

During the Palestinian national dialogue, which started in March, Hamas and Fatah failed to agree on the platform of a unity government to replace the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip and the Western-backed government which is based in the West Bank.

US Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday urged Israel's new right-leaning government to stop building settlements in the West Bank and accept negotiations for a Palestinian state.

Biden also asked Arab states to start moving toward ending Israel's isolation as President Barack Obama and his Israeli counterpart Shimon Peres met for talks.

It was the first summit between the close allies since Benjamin Netanyahu was elected Israel's premier, and Obama took over in January as US president.

"Israel's security is non-negotiable. Period," Biden told some 6,500 delegates to the annual conference of the American-Israel Public Affairs Committee, which calls itself the most influential foreign policy lobby in Washington.

"But Israel has to work toward a two-state solution," Biden said in the most forceful language the Obama administration has used so far to set out what it expects both from Israel and Arab nations.

"You're not going to like my saying this but (do) not build more settlements, dismantle existing outposts and allow Palestinians freedom of movement," Biden told the audience, which nonetheless applauded him.

And he stressed at a Washington Convention Center decked out with giant photographs of US and Israeli leaders greeting each other over the decades, that the Obama administration stood behind Israel's security.

Netanyahu, who has been invited for talks in the coming weeks, has so far refused to publicly endorse the creation of a Palestinian state, and has insisted on focusing efforts on strengthening the West Bank economy before engaging in negotiations on a final status agreement.

Biden said the Obama administration looked forward to working with Netanyahu on how to strengthen the security apparatus of the US-backed Palestinian Authority (PA).

He urged the Arab states to support and fund Palestinian security and other institutions in the West Bank, which the PA still rules after a 2007 violent showdown with the militant movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip.

"Now is the time for Arab states to make meaningful gestures to show the Israeli leadership and the people the promise of ending Israel's isolation in the region is real and genuine," Biden said.

"They must take action now," he added.

Senator John Kerry, a fellow Democrat who replaced Biden as chairman of the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee, made more specific pleas to the Arab states when he spoke to the conference moments earlier.

He urged Arab states to start "treating Israel like a normal country, ending the boycott, letting El Al (airline) fly over their countries and meeting Israel leaders."

He said "lack of support from Arab states" was a key reason that the Palestinian-Israeli peace talks failed in 2000 and degenerated into years of violence.

But he said there was a shift in the region in which Arabs now embrace the idea of land for peace and are also arrayed against a growing threat from Iran.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Hamas must recognize Israel, renounce terror and abide by past deals with Israel if Washington is to encourage the Jewish state to hold talks with the Palestinian Islamist movement.

"Those (requirements) haven't changed," Gibbs told a press briefing.

No details immediately emerged of Peres's separate talks with Obama, Biden and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

But Peres told reporters Netanyahu had signed up to the commitments of the US-backed "road-map" when asked by reporters about the new Israeli administration's failure to so far endorse a two-state solution.

"Netanyahu said he will abide by the commitments of the previous government," Peres said after his closed-door meeting with Obama.

"The previous government accepted the road map -- in the roadmap you will find the attitude to the two-state solution."

Biden ended his speech by calling for Palestinian militants to release immediately and unconditionally Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, who has been held captive in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip for nearly three years.

Exiled Hamas chief Khaled Meshaal said the Palestinian Islamist movement could support a two-state solution with Israel based on 1967 borders but repeated it wasn't prepared to recognize the Jewish state, according to a Tuesday report.

In an interview with The New York Times, Meshaal - re-elected last week to a fourth four-year term as head of the Hamas politburo - appeared to reach out to the West, stressing it had stopped firing rockets into Israel and was seeking a long-term truce.

"I promise the American administration and the international community that we will be part of the solution, period," Meshaal told the daily in an interview spread over two days in his home in the Syrian capital Damascus.

"We are with a state on the 1967 borders, based on a long-term truce," he told the Times.

"This includes East Jerusalem, the dismantling of settlements and the right of return of the Palestinian refugees."

Asked what he meant by "long-term," Meshaal said 10 years.

Hamas, which Washington has labeled a terrorist organization, has asserted it does not and would not recognize Israel, and Meshaal repeated as much in the interview, saying "there is only one enemy in the region, and that is Israel."

The Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip weathered a massive Israeli offensive at the turn of the year which killed 1,300 Palestinians and 13 Israelis.

Israel insists its offensive was aimed at halting the hundreds of rockets and mortar rounds fired by Gaza militants into Israel beginning in December.

More than 160 rockets and mortars have been fired on Israel since shaky ceasefires ended the war, but Meshaal said Hamas has silenced the rockets for now.

"Not firing the rockets currently is part of an evaluation from the movement which serves the Palestinians' interest," Meshaal said. "After all, the firing is a method, not a goal."

The interview was published on the day Israeli President Shimon Peres was set to become the first Israeli leader to meet with U.S. President Barack Obama, whose administration says it will not open dialogue with Hamas until it renounces violence.

Meshaal, speaking about the new U.S. president, nevertheless said "his language is different and positive."

Obama has invited Netanyahu, Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to Washington in the coming weeks and called for "good faith" gestures from all sides, including Israel.

But in a speech Monday to the main pro-Israel lobby in Washington, Peres omitted mention of a possible two-state solution, which Obama has embraced but new right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has shied away from since his election in February.

A UN agency has asked Israel to freeze the demolition of Arab homes in East Jerusalem, citing a housing crisis in the part of the city claimed as a future Palestinian capital.

Over a quarter of the 225,000 Palestinians in annnexed East Jerusalem risk having their homes demolished by the Israeli authorities because they were built without permits, the UN's Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said in a report published on Friday.

To date, approximately 1,500 demolition orders have been issued in East Jerusalem, which if implemented, would leave about 9,000 people homeless, almost half of them children.

Palestinians say the demolitions are an attempt to push them out of the city, but municipal authorities insist they simply follow the law and raze houses built without the necessary permits.

The OCHA report said that at least 28 percent of Palestinian homes in East Jerusalem have been built without Israeli permits, which residents say are nearly impossible to obtain.

These homes now face possible demolition.

The report also claims that planners have earmarked only 13 percent of annexed East Jerusalem for Palestinian construction, while one third has been expropriated for settlement housing projects.

About 200,000 Israeli settlers live in East Jerusalem. Israeli settlements there and in the rest of the West Bank are one of the main stumbling blocks in the moribund Middle East peace process.

Israel annexed East Jerusalem after capturing the city in the 1967 Six Day War, declaring the city its "eternal, undivided capital."

The move has not been recognised by the international community and all foreign embassies are located in the commercial capital Tel Aviv.

Meanwhile, in an unexpectedly short speech before AIPAC's policy conference delegates late Monday night, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu stated his desire to pursue Mideast peace talks, and voiced his concern over Iran's progressing nuclear program.

The five-and-a-half minute address was transmitted via satellite from Jerusalem to a crowd made up of the ambassadors of 66 countries and over half of the U.S. members of congress.

After thanking AIPAC activists for their work and the Congress members for their support, PM Netanyahu commented on where he saw Mideast peace talks: "Next week I'll be visiting Egypt with President Mubarak and I plan to discuss both matters with him - cooperation between the Arab world and cooperation between Israel and the Palestinians."

Israel on Tuesday rejected as "biased" the findings of a United Nations report that accuses the Israel Defense Forces of deliberately firing at UN institutions during its offensive in the Gaza Strip early this year.

The report, commissioned by UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon, was expected to be presented to the Security Council late Tuesday, foreign ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said.

Israeli government officials said a copy had been provided to Israel for comment, but would not release the report.

"Israel rejects the criticism in the committee's summary report, and determines that in both spirit and language, the report is tendentious, patently biased, and ignores the facts," the foreign ministry said in a statement.

"The committee has preferred the claims of (Islamist group) Hamas, a murderous terror organization, and by doing so has misled the world."

The UN also found that the IDF used disproportionate force and caused unnecessary harm to civilians in its three-week military offensive in the Gaza Strip which ended in mid-January, Israeli daily, Yedioth Ahronoth, reported on Tuesday.

According to the paper, the UN also ignored the cross-border rocket attacks by Gaza militants that sparked the offensive.

"Immediately upon the conclusion of Operation Cast Lead, and unrelated to the UN investigation, Israel carried out independent inquiries into the damage caused to the UN installations," the foreign ministry said.

It said the findings of those inquiries proved "beyond doubt" that the IDF did not intentionally fire at the UN installations.

"Not only have the Hamas terrorists not conducted such inquiries," the ministry added, "they use violence and intimidation against citizens of Gaza as tools to prevent them from presenting the actual truth. In this manner they have deceived the investigators, the UN and public opinion."

More than 1,330 Palestinians were killed during Operation Cast Lead and another 5,400 were injured.

Thousands of homes and hundreds of schools and businesses were destroyed in the ground and air offensive.

The stated aim of the Israeli offensive was to end cross-border rocket attacks by militants from Hamas and other Palestinian factions.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu intends to conduct "serious negotiations" with the Palestinians and the Syrians, Minister Benjamin Ben-Eliezer (Labor) told Haaretz. The full interview will appear Friday in Week's End.

"Netanyahu is going to surprise us all," said Ben-Eliezer, who is industry, trade and employment minister, after several tête-à-têtes with the prime minister over the past month.

He said Netanyahu had assured him, both before and after he set up the government, that he would continue negotiating with the Syrians.

Regarding the Palestinians, Netanyahu's plan will be based on a two-state solution, said Ben-Eliezer.

"It's not the same Bibi," Ben-Eliezer said. "He's much more open, patient and relaxed. He's not alarmed or dogmatic.

Something happened to him. He realizes that he cannot afford another crash like the one in his previous term.

"He understands that there's a new administration in the United States, which is neither the Clinton Administration nor the Bush administration, and that if we don't come up with a peace plan, someone else will call the shots for us."

"If we find that Bibi lied to us, we'll quit [the coalition]," said Ben-Eliezer, who is a member of the security cabinet.

He said that he and Netanyahu believe the Iranian issue should be solved diplomatically, not militarily.

Ben-Eliezer said the Labor Knesset members who objected to party chairman Ehud Barak's decision to enter the coalition were "terrorizing" the party, and called their conduct over Barak's dismissal of party secretary general Eitan Cabel "insanity."