Obama Seeks Building Halt as Middle East Talks Resume
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President Barack Obama needed 18 months to persuade Palestinians and Israelis to hold direct peace talks. Now he has 12 days to make sure the negotiations aren’t derailed by a dispute over settlement construction.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who started negotiations in Washington on Sept. 2, meet for a second round today at the resort of Sharm el-Sheikh in Egypt. Clouding the talks is the Sept. 26 expiration of a temporary halt Netanyahu declared on West Bank building, which Obama asked him last week to extend.