And I want to thank President Abbas for participating in these proximity talks even under some difficult circumstances.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Meets with Palestinian President Abbas
Again, we have asked the Prime Minister to take steps to build confidence for proximity talks to be able to make progress.
Meanwhile Hamas waits on the sidelines as the proximity talks stumble, despite the doggedly hopeful assertions of Mr Obama's Middle East officials.
In January, several months of indirect "proximity talks" ended without any progress.
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Mr Biden himself and many State Department officials, together with George Mitchell, who was to have supervised the now-stalled proximity talks, advised cooling things down.
The President asked the Prime Minister to take steps to build confidence for proximity talks so that progress can be made towards comprehensive Middle East peace.
Speaking to Arab League members in Cairo on Monday, EU foreign policy head Baroness Ashton said the move had "endangered and undermined the tentative agreement to begin proximity talks".
"We have just started proximity talks, that is shuttle diplomacy, between the Palestinians and the Israelis, and for this announcement to come at that time was very destructive, " he said.
We expect those proximity talks to lead to direct talks, and I believe that the government of Israel is prepared to engage in such direct talks, and I commend the Prime Minister for that.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Meets with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu | The White House
But we've seen already proximity talks taking place.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Meets with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu | The White House
Whatever assurances the Americans may have given Mr Netanyahu, it is likely, if the proximity talks stall again, that they will bring their own bridging proposals to the table or even launch a full-blooded plan of their own.
We have had very productive proximity talks.
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Meets with Palestinian President Abbas
We think that coming to the table, coming back to the table, developing the type of confidence and trust that both sides need in these proximity talks, is important to building a process to getting to those final status issues.
As part of the steps which need to be taken to move proximity talks on to direct talks, do you think it would be helpful for Israel to extend the partial settlement moratorium, which is set to expire in September?
WHITEHOUSE: President Obama Meets with Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu | The White House
And finally we discussed our efforts to advance security and peace around the world, including in the Middle East, where we agree that all sides need to act now to create the atmosphere that gives the proximity talks the best chance to succeed.
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Our hope is to create an atmosphere by -- through confidence-building in steps that both sides take so that we can transition from proximity talks to direct talks -- not simply to get to direct talks, but to have those direct talks succeed.
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