Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas repeated an offer today to restart peace talks with Israel after a UN vote to recognise Palestine as an observer state later this month.
US President Barack Obama spoke to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the first time in six months to discuss the long-stalled Middle East peace process, the White House said.
The Palestinian prime minister plans to use a rare meeting set for Tuesday with Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu to deliver a letter detailing Palestinian grievances on stalled peace talks.
In comments that may stir Israel's election campaign, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said that he and Ehud Olmert were "two months" away from a peace deal before Olmert had to resign as Israeli prime minister.
Israeli soldiers arrested senior Hamas official, Aziz Dweik, speaker of the Palestinian parliament on suspicion of involvement with terrorist groups, the Israeli military and Hamas said.
Israeli-Palestinian talks aimed at reviving peace negotiations ended in Jordan without achieving any progress and President Mahmoud Abbas plans to consult fellow Arabs on his next move, Palestinian officials said.
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon urged today Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to offer Palestinians goodwill gestures to keep peace talks alive.
Israel approved today the construction of 1,100 settlement homes on annexed land in the West Bank, a move that complicates global efforts to renew peace talks and defuse a crisis over a Palestinian statehood bid at the United Nations.
Israel and Gaza's Hamas Islamist rulers agreed to swap more than 1,000 Palestinian prisoners for Israeli captive soldier Gilad Shalit, resolving one of the most emotive and intractable issues between them.
Israeli and Palestinian negotiators made no breakthrough during their first high-level discussions in more than a year, but agreed to hold further talks in Amman on a confidential basis, Jordan's foreign minister said.
President Barack Obama told the United Nations yesterday there was no short cut to Middle East peace but Palestinians said they would press on with a request for UN recognition of their nascent state.
President of Palestine authority Mahmoud Abbas gave an emotional 50 minutes speech – 35 minutes above the usual speech time – before the United Nations General Assembly in the hopes of gathering support for his bid to seat at the UN.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told the UN General Assembly that he was reaching out to the Palestinian people but cautioned that peace could not be won with a UN resolution.
A last-ditch international push began in New York today to try to re-launch Israeli-Palestinian peace talks and avert a crisis over Palestinian statehood at the United Nations.
President Mahmoud Abbas told the United Nations' top official he would seek full UN membership for a Palestinian state, a move the United States and Israel warn could lead to disaster and shatter chances for resuming peace negotiations.
President Barack Obama will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas today to urge him to drop plans to ask the UN Security Council to recognize a Palestinian state despite US and Israeli objections.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would continue to cooperate with the United States despite Washington's veto of a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements on occupied land.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas welcomed US President Barak Obama's efforts to renew talks with Israel that collapsed last year, a senior Palestinian official said.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he would demand full membership of the United Nations when he goes to the UN General Assembly next week, setting up a diplomatic clash with Israel and the United States.
Chile said it had recognized a Palestinian state, joining an endorsement by Latin American peers the United States has called premature and Israel has warned is harmful to the Middle East peace process.