Mideast peace talks end without deal

JERUSALEM - A mortar attack by Palestinian militants and airstrikes by Israel formed the grim backdrop as Mideast leaders ended their latest round of peace talks yesterday, still divided on major issues. There was no word on when they would meet again.

The inconclusive U.S.-brokered talks between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas left in doubt the prospects for their new effort to end generations of hostilities in the region and create a sovereign Palestine alongside a secure Israel.

George Mitchell, the U.S. envoy for Mideast peace efforts, emerged from an evening session to say the talks had been encouraging but had fallen short of agreement.

Abbas and Netanyahu met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton for about two hours at the Israeli leader's official residence here and agreed to continue the search for a peace deal, he said. But the leaders face a looming crisis with the expiration this month of Israel's partial moratorium on West Bank settlement construction, and it was not clear when they would reconvene.

Clinton planned to meet with Abbas today at his West Bank offices in Ramallah, and then travel to Amman for a working lunch with Jordan's King Abdullah II, who has been a forceful supporter of the peace talks.

Talks will probably resume at next week's UN General Assembly meetings in New York, where President Barack Obama is expected to meet personally with the leaders. American officials said Obama's personal intervention might be needed to break the deadlock.

The Israeli military said eight mortars and one rocket hit Israel yesterday, the highest daily total since March 2009. There were no injuries.

Israeli warplanes responded by bombing a smuggling tunnel along the Gaza-Egypt border, the military said. Hamas officials said one person was killed and four wounded.

With Chicago Tribune