PARIS - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told Palestinian Authority President
Mahmoud Abbas on Friday the Palestinian-Israeli conflict should not be
forgotten amid wider upheaval in the Middle East.
Washington has
made no visible progress toward its goal of reaching an outline peace
deal by the end of this year and both sides appear unlikely to make any
significant steps toward peace ahead of the US election in November.
Clinton
met Abbas after attending an international meeting on Syria, where
forces loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad have sought for more than a year
to crush a rebellion against his family's four-decade rule.
The
Syrian conflict is the bloodiest of the Arab Spring uprisings that have
toppled authoritarian rulers in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya and Yemen.
Peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians broke down in 2010 in a dispute over settlement building in the West Bank.
"In
a time of upheaval across the region, we cannot lose sight of the
critical importance of resolving this issue," Clinton told reporters.
Clinton is due to travel to Israel later this month.