CAIRO: US special envoy George Mitchell on Saturday met Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak as he wrapped up a regional tour aimed at advancing Middle East peace efforts.
Mitchell, a go-between in indirect talks between Israel and the Palestinians that started in May, discussed with Mubarak Washington’s drive to broker a long-elusive regional peace, the official MENA news agency reported.
Mitchell told reporters after the meeting that Washington welcomed an Israeli announcement to ease a blockade on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, enforced since the Islamist group seized the enclave in 2007.
"The current arrangements are unsustainable and must be changed," he said, repeating criticism made by US President Barack Obama’s earlier this month.
A botched Israeli raid against a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza last month killed nine Turkish activists and sparked an international furore, leading to Israel’s announcement that it would ease the blockade.
Israel says the blockade is necessary to prevent Hamas from acquiring weapons, but the embargo, which banned seemingly arbitrary food items as well as concrete, is also widely seen as a pressure tactic against Gazans.
Earlier in the week Mitchell met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas.
The Palestinians have refused to resume direct negotiations with Israel until it completely halts settlement construction in the occupied West Bank and annexed east Jerusalem, where they hope to found the capital of a future state.
Abbas suspended the previous round of direct negotiations, conducted in the absence of a settlement freeze, when Israel launched a war on the Gaza Strip in December 2008 in response to Hamas rocket fire.
