Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday that direct negotiations with the Palestinian Authority will begin mid-August. The Israeli leader denied during a ministerial meeting of the Likud party to receiving any Palestinian proposal, saying "there is no change at the moment to the conditions, including the construction freeze in settlements."
These remarks by Netanyahu coincide with a visit by Israeli President Shimon Peres on Sunday to the Egyptian capital Cairo for talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak in the context of advancing the negotiations between the Palestinian Authority and Israel.
