Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak held Saturday talks with visiting Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on means of reviving the Middle East peace process. The two leaders also discussed the Inter-Palestinian reconciliation efforts. In press statements released after talks with Mubarak, Abbas said that talks on the Palestinian national reconciliation kicked off in Egypt and will remain in Egypt. "Signing a final document on this score will also be undertaken in Egypt" he said. Egypt has hosted seven rounds of inter-Palestinian dialogue since February 2009 to iron out their rifts. "When Hamas signs the reconciliation, there will immediately be a meeting with (Hamas leader) Khaled Meshaal, between Fatah and Hamas, and between all the factions to apply what is contained in the Egyptian document," Abbas told reporters after meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in Cairo. "There is nothing to add or amend to the Egyptian document," he said, referring to modifications requested by Hamas. In October, Egypt proposed a 25-page reconciliation pact to end the current Palestinian split, urging the two feuding parties to ink it. The Palestinians have asked the Obama administration to clarify a US envoy's proposal to restart long-stalled peace talks with Israel indirectly by shuttling between the two sides, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said Saturday. The talks collapsed a year ago during Israel's war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Efforts by President Barack Obama since then to revive them have failed in large part over the issue of Israel's settlement construction in areas the Palestinians want for a future state. President Hosni Mubarak, whose country has also served as an intermediary between Israel and the Palestinians, held talks in Cairo yesterday with Abbas over the new US plan. "We have asked the American side some questions ... and the answers will be discussed within a joint Arab framework and then we will announce our position," Abbas said. The Palestinian president said in a meeting with Egyptian editors-in-chief Friday night that he was optimistic the United States could push the sides back to talks. First, though, he wants clear guidelines on the offer by US envoy George Mitchell to conduct shuttle diplomacy. "Egypt's role in mediating Palestinian reconciliation talks is credited and could not be replaced," Abbas said, stressing that he faced “pressure and threats” (presumably from Israel) not to sign an Egyptian-proposed reconciliation document with rival Palestinian faction Hamas. Peace talks that began in November 2007 under former President George W. Bush broke off in December 2008 with Israel's attack on Gaza, which is ruled by Abbas' rivals in the Islamic militant Hamas movement. "I'm optimistic that the American administration is capable of doing something to bring about a breakthrough in the peace process," Abbas said Friday.
