JERUSALEM Senior White House adviser Dennis Ross was on Wednesday holding talks in Israel with top defence officials in connection with US attempts to revive the peace process, an Israeli newspaper said.
Top-selling Yediot Aharonot newspaper said Ross arrived late on Tuesday for two days of meetings which would include talks with outgoing Israeli Chief of Staff Gabi Ashkenazi.
He was also expected to meet with Yuval Diskin, who heads the Shin Bet security service as well as other top intelligence officials, the paper said.
The US embassy refused to confirm or deny the report that Ross was in Israel, while the military declined to confirm details of Ashkenazi’s schedule.
The paper said Ross’s visit to Israel was made at the request of US President Barack Obama and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in order to establish some idea of what Israel’s security needs would be for final status negotiations with the Palestinians.
"In the course of his meetings the two sides are going to try to establish what Jerusalem’s red lines are and to discuss long-term security arrangements that Israel would like to have with the United States and which would be ancillary to any future peace agreement," the report said.
The trip overlaps with a separate visit by Washington’s Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who has spent the past two days meeting top Israeli and Palestinian officials with the aim of starting indirect talks a week after face-to-face negotiations collapsed.
Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas is currently in Cairo to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab League diplomats to brief them on US efforts to head off a crisis in peace talks.
Mitchell is also there for a separate series of meetings with top Egyptian and Arab leaders.
