US envoy begins Mideast peace push

JERUSALEM — U.S. envoy George Mitchell began a new swing through the Mideast on Tuesday with a call for a rapid resumption of peace talks, as the White House tried to push Israel to halt settlement construction in the West Bank.

Mitchell met with Israel’s defense minister, who helps oversee settlement policy, and was slated to hold talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Netanyahu has refused to accept U.S. calls to support the creation of a Palestinian state and freeze settlement construction on captured lands claimed by the Palestinians. That has led to the most public disagreement between Israel and the U.S. in a decade.

“We all share an obligation to create the conditions for the prompt resumption and early conclusion of negotiations,” Mitchell said at a meeting with Israel’s president, Shimon Peres.

But he also tried to calm Israeli nerves, saying the policy gaps “are not disagreements among adversaries” and that the two countries “remain close allies and friends.”

In Mitchell’s meeting with the defense minister, Ehud Barak, the two discussed the question of settlement construction, Barak’s office said in a statement. No further details were released.

Netanyahu is set to deliver a major policy speech Sunday. The Israeli leader spoke to President Barack Obama late Monday, and Obama said he is looking forward to the upcoming speech, according to statements from Netanyahu’s office and the White House.

According to the White House, Obama repeated points he made in his address to the Muslim world in Cairo last week, “including his commitment to Israel’s security.” In the speech, Obama also expressed U.S. support for a Palestinian state and called for a halt to Israeli settlements in the West Bank.

The U.S. demands have left Netanyahu with few options. The Israeli leader cannot alienate Israel’s closest ally, but any move toward recognizing Palestinian statehood or freezing settlements would mark a departure from Netanyahu’s long-standing commitment to Israeli control over the West Bank. Such a move could also destabilize his coalition government, dominated by pro-settlement hawks.

Mitchell will meet with Palestinian leaders, including President Mahmoud Abbas, on Wednesday. Nabil Abu Rdeneh, an aide to Abbas, said the Palestinians would ask the U.S. to impose a timetable for negotiations and “expedite the creation of a Palestinian state.”

After his visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, Mitchell will continue to Syria and to Lebanon, where a pro-Western coalition supported by the U.S. won a crucial election this week, fending off a serious challenge from a coalition backed by the pro-Iranian Hezbollah party.