U.S. Vice President Joe Biden will travel to the Middle East during the week of March 8, Reuters quoted the White House as saying today. Biden will meet with leaders in Israel, the Palestinian territories and Egypt and Jordan, and will talk with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordanian King Abdullah. President Barack Obama is working to bring Israel and the Palestinians back to the negotiating table to resume a peace process that has been frozen for more than a year. The Palestinians are weighing indirect peace talks with Israel to be mediated by the United States, but Abbas said on Monday he was still waiting for Washington to explain how it might help restart peace talks before he would consider reopening those negotiations. Further details on the trip will be released later, the White House said.
