Clinton’s invitation came during a press conference Friday August 20, in which she urged all parties to persevere despite major obstacles. The meeting will intend to resolve all final-status issues, which Clinton said she believes can be completed within a year.
It is planned for a one-on-one meeting between Obama and King Abdullah, after which the King will attend a meeting in Washington that will include Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Middle East Quartet Representative Tony Blair, as well as Mr. Abbas and Mr. Netanyahu, according to the Jordan News Agency, Petra.
The king’s talks with Obama will focus on necessary steps to ensure that direct negotiations reach the ultimate objective of ending the Palestinian-Israeli conflict on the basis of the two-state solution, and within a regional context leading to comprehensive peace.
A Royal Court source stressed the King’s keenness to achieve a unified position to conduct successful negotiations that will tackle all final status issues, and fulfill the two-state solution that guarantees setting up an independent Palestinian state on land occupied since 1967 with East Jerusalem as its capital.
The meeting will be the first direct negotiations in 20 months, after Mr. Abbas broke off talks with the previous Prime Minister Ehud Olmert in late 2008, and contacts were frozen following Israel’s offensive against the Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip in December that year
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