U.S.: Israel, P.A. Agree to Indirect Peace Talks

President Barack Obama's Middle East envoy George Mitchell announced Monday that Israel and the Palestinian Authority have agreed to resume U.S.-brokered peace negotiations in the coming weeks, the Washington Post reports.

Mitchell, who met with officials both in Jerusalem and Ramallah over the past two days, said he hoped indirect talks would lead to "direct negotiations as soon as possible."

"Palestinians and Israelis have negotiated face to face in direct talks for 20 years, and it's not understandable why we would now have them sit in separate rooms and move between them," former U.S. ambassador to Israel and Egypt Daniel Kurtzer told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week.

Mitchell's proclamation comes as Vice President Joe Biden begins his first trip to Israel since taking office. The former senator is scheduled to return to the region next week to discuss the "structure and scope" of the negotiations.

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