Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu welcomed Monday a US decision to focus on the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, after an attempt to get Israel to freeze construction in West Bank settlements collapsed, DPA reported.
The decision, he told an economics conference in Tel Aviv "is good for Israel, and good for peace."
Netanyahu made his remarks days after the US said it was abandoning efforts to get Israel to freeze construction at its West Bank settlements for 90 days, in order to bring Palestinians back to direct peace talks.
The remarks came just hours before US envoy George Mitchell was due in the region to hold talks with the sides.
The US decision came because Washington realised that "the important thing is to reach the important topics, the issues at the core of our conflict with the Palestinians," Netanyahu said.
Direct Israeli-Palestinian peace talks, which resumed at the beginning of September after a break of nearly two years, plunged into limbo at the end of that month when Israel's partial, limited 10-month freeze on construction at its West Bank settlements expired.
Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas insisted that the talks would not resume until and unless the freeze was renewed.
A US proposal that Israel freeze construction for a further 90 days, in return for incentives, went nowhere.
Mitchell, who will meet separately with both Netanyahu and Abbas, will be making his first visit to the region in three months.
Although Netanyahu welcomed the focus on the core issues of the conflict, Israel has yet to present its positions on them.
The key issues include Jerusalem, the borders of a future Palestinian state, the future of Palestinian refugees and their descendents, water, and the fate of Israeli settlements.
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