Mideast progress

The US-brokered direct talks between Israel and Palestine started in Washington on Thursday. The world heaved a collective sigh of relief as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas resumed direct talks after a long gap of months and many conflicts and confrontations that claimed quite a few lives and caused untold suffering on both sides.

The meeting has been possible because of US-led international efforts over the past several months to break the stalemate in the Middle East peace process.

International observers, in general, doubt whether the ongoing talks would yield substantive results that could end the six-decade-old conflict between the two sides.