President Abbas arrives in Washington for talks on peace

Wednesday April 23, 2008 10:47 by Rami Almeghari - IMEMC & Agencies

Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas arrived on Tuesday in Washington for talks on peace between Palestinians and Israelis.

President Mahmoud Abbas and U.S President, Gorge W. Bush/ archive photo

Washington was the last stop within Abbas' trip outside Palestine, as he earlier visited Jordan, Russia and Tunisia, where he expressed willingness to reach an agreement with the Israelis before the end of 2008.

In Iceland, where the president stopped for few hours, he told reporters that he will be participating in a summit meeting on May17 in the Egyptian Red Sea Resort of Sharm Elsheikh, jointly with President Gorge W. Bush and Egyptian president Husni Mubarak.

Abbas's underway contacts come in the backdrop of a complete stalemate of the peace process between Israelis and Palestinians, following the last November's Washington-sponsored peace conference in Annapolis of Mayrland in the United States.

The said conference revived deadlocked Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations on basis of a two-state solution by the end of 2008.

On the other hand, foreign minister of Russia, Sirgi Laverov, told Interfax News Agency yesterday that a meeting of the Quart for Middle East peace will be held by May1-2 in London.

In the meantime, chief of Arab states league, Amr Mousa, believed this week that there needs to be an assessment by next June for the Palestinain-Israeli peace talks which are meant to reach a solution by end of this year.

palestine | palestinian politics | news report rami at imemc dot org