Obama to host Netanyahu, Abbas meeting in New York

US President Obama, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet on the sidelines of the UN meetings in New York on Tuesday, the White House has said. Prior to that Obama will hold individual meetings with each of the two leaders. "These meetings will continue the efforts of President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, and Special Envoy George Mitchell to lay the groundwork for the relaunch of negotiations, and to create a positive context for those negotiations so that they can succeed," the statement said.

US Middle East envoy George Mitchell had met with Netanyahu and Abbas several times last week, but had reportedly failed to achieve a breakthrough.