国际英语新闻：Mitchell arrives in the region to promote Mideast talks

The United States had in May this year, sponsored proximity talks between Israel and the Palestinians. However, the six months proximity talks between the two sides did not lead to any fruitful result, where it was decided to go through direct talks that were launched in Washington on Sept. 2.

However, the direct talks were suspended by the Palestinians, one month after it had been launched, due to the Israeli government's refusal to extend a 10-month moratorium over freezing settlement constructions in the Palestinian territories that ended on Sept. 26.

The Palestinians had threatened that if Israel keeps insisting not to freeze settlement constructions, they would use other diplomatic options, mainly demanding the UN Security Council to recognize an independent Palestinian state. Israel warned the Palestinians not to carry out such actions.