Benjamin Netanyahu will not attend a Mideast summit in Washington next week, an aide said Friday after the prime minister’s meeting with a U.S. envoy on an Israeli troop withdrawal ended without agreement. “It’s quite obvious we won’t be able to reach an agreement by Sunday, which means we won’t be able to be in Washington on Monday,” Netanyahu’s senior aide David Bar-Illan told The Associated Press. U.S. envoy Dennis Ross returned to Israel Friday for a last try at persuading Netanyahu to accept Washington’s proposal for a further troop withdrawal from the West Bank. Clinton hinged a White House summit between Netanyahu and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat on Israel’s acceptance of the deal. Netanyahu has said that the U.S. plan would harm Israel’s security.
