The White House has announced that President Obama will host a meeting with the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday. The talks will take place in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly.The White House announcement follows a week after US envoy George Mitchell's last round of shuttle diplomacy ended without agreement. Mr. Mitchell was unable to bridge deep differences over Israel's refusal to observe an absolute freeze on Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territories. The envoy said the US President would be personally continuing these efforts.It will be first meeting between Israelis and Palestinians since Netanyahu became Prime minister of Israel this year.While Palestinian chief negotiator, belonging to Fateh group has welcomed Obama's personal involvement in the peace process indicating low Palestinian expectations for a positive outcome, the leader of other Palestinian group Hamas, Ismail Haniya has warned against making any concessions to Israel during the talks. Israeli Prime minister’s office responded positively to the invitation.Recently US envoy to middle East George Mitchell wrapped up a mission to the Middle East after failing to secure an Israeli freeze on settlement expansion.Palestinians have been demanding a halt to Israeli settlement construction in the occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, as a condition for resuming talks with Israel. Under pressure from his own far right cabinet members, Netanyahu has repeatedly ignored US calls in this regard.While analysts are not optimistic about this meeting, they say that it may pave the way for the resumption of peace talks, stalled since Israel's war against the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December.