US has no 'grand' expectations from Obama, Netanyahu, Abbas meeting

Jerusalem, Sep.22 (ANI): The tripartite meeting between US President Barack Obama, Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on the sidelines of the United Nation's General Assembly in New York on Tuesday (today) is expected to kick off talks between the three stakeholders amid the renewed diplomatic process.

However, the United States has made it clear that it has no 'grand' expectations from the meeting, but says the talks are important to continue the peace process.

"We have no grand expectations out of one meeting," said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, adding, "It would be an important way to continue the hard work, day-to-day diplomacy that has to be done to seek a lasting peace."

Officials said it is still unclear whether the sides would issue a joint statement after the meeting or release their own versions separately.

Obama is also expected to address the Middle East issue in one of the speeches he will deliver at the UN General Assembly.

Meanwhile, one of Netanyahu's close aides and media advisor, Nir Hefetz, has said the Prime Minister is unlikely to bend on his position during the talks which are scheduled to take place in New York's Waldorf Astoria Hotel.

"You have never heard the prime minister say that he will freeze settlements. The opposite is true. He sees the Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria as a Zionist enterprise, and he sees the settlers... as his brothers, our brothers, and acts accordingly," The jpost.com quoted Hefetz, as saying. (ANI)