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Israeli, Palestinian Negotiators Hold 3rd Day of Peace Talks


Israeli and Western news reports say Israeli and Palestinian officials have met in Jerusalem for a third day of peace talks since they resumed negotiations after a three-year freeze.

The reports quote sources close to the talks as saying the negotiators met Tuesday morning in Jerusalem's King David Hotel and were to meet again there in the evening.

The governments of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas have pledged to keep the content of the discussions a secret at the request of U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

The top U.S. diplomat brought the two sides together for a preliminary meeting in Washington on July 29 after months of shuttle diplomacy. Israeli chief negotiator Tzipi Livni and her Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat held a second meeting in Jerusalem last week, without U.S. mediation.

In an interview with Israeli radio on Tuesday, Livni said Israel will have to make "dramatic decisions" to conclude a peace deal.

The centrist Israeli justice minister also accused ultranationalist members of Israel's coalition government of making the negotiations harder by opposing a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict - something she supports. Her comment was seen as a reference to the Jewish Home party of ultranationalist Israeli Economy Minister Naftali Bennett.

Bennett responded to Livni's comment on Facebook, telling her to "get over it."

Netanyahu and Abbas have pledged to try to resolve all core issues of the conflict.

Those include rival sovereignty claims over Jerusalem, the fate of refugees of Arab-Israeli wars, the final borders of Israel and a future Palestinian state, and the presence of Jewish settlements on occupied West Bank land the Palestinians claim for that state.
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