U.S. Starts New Phase of Middle East MediationThe United States started a new phase of mediation between Israelis and Palestinians in New York Thursday afternoon in a bid to hammer out a peace deal in weeks.The key meetings are between U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross and two Palestinian negotiators, Saeb Erekat and Mohammad Dahlan, and then between Acting Israeli Foreign Minister Shlomo Ben-Ami and U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright. Albright told a news conference at the United Nations that the talks could move either to Washington or the Middle East and the United States would bring the two sides together "if it made sense." "There is a great deal of very imaginative work going on, a lot of brainpower," Albright said. "Neither side can have 100 percent of what it wants. We cannot come out this where one side feels that it has won and the other lost," she said. The United States failed last week to bring about a breakthrough when President Bill Clinton had separate talks with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders on the sideline of the United Nations Millennium Summit held from September 6 to 8. |
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