Elders to bolster Gaza peace

WEST BANK: The Elders, a group of retired world figures, Wednesday met with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas in a bid to push the moribund peace process forward.

The group of three arrived in the West Bank city of Ramallah on a “mission to promote a just and secure peace for all in the Middle East,” said the delegation leader and former Irish president Mary Robinson.

Their visit to the political capital of the West Bank came after the delegation had held a series of meetings in the Gaza Strip, Egypt, Syria and Jordan aimed at bolstering regional peace efforts.

Robinson said the issue of Israeli settlement construction was “of particular concern” to the group.

Israel and the Palestinian leadership started new US-brokered direct talks on September 2, but the negotiations foundered after the expiry of an Israeli moratorium on settlement building in the occupied West Bank late last month.

Palestinian leaders have said they will not continue negotiating while Israel refuses to extend the 10-month construction freeze.

On October 9, the Arab League gave the United States a month to try to bridge differences over Jewish settlements, one of the thorniest obstacles to peace in the Middle East.

The Elders delegation, which includes former US president Jimmy Carter and Indian women’s union leader Ela Bhatt, was to meet Israeli officials in Jerusalem on Thursday and Friday. Ramallah, AFP