Peace Negotiations Get Underway Over Iftar Dinner at State Department
The Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams arrived at the State Department building in Washington Monday night after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry set the wheels into motion for the first direct peace talks in almost three years.
The negotiating teams began talks over the traditional Iftar dinner that breaks the Ramadan fast, being hosted at State Department building by Kerry.
The Iftar dinner was relatively informal and is intended primarily to establish a friendly atmosphere. However, a senior Israeli official noted that the parties will begin discussing the agenda for negotiations during dinner.
During the press conference earlier Monday, Kerry lauded Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat, for their efforts to move the process forward.
Speaking from Cairo where he was meeting with Egypt’s interim president Adli Mansour, Abbas said that no Israeli settlers or border forces could remain in a future Palestinian state and that Palestinians deem illegal all Jewish settlement building beyond the Green Line.
Read more at Haaretz.com.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning journalism this Passover.
In this age of misinformation, our work is needed like never before. We report on the news that matters most to American Jews, driven by truth, not ideology.
At a time when newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall. That means for the first time in our 126-year history, Forward journalism is free to everyone, everywhere. With an ongoing war, rising antisemitism, and a flood of disinformation that may affect the upcoming election, we believe that free and open access to Jewish journalism is imperative.
Readers like you make it all possible. Right now, we’re in the middle of our Passover Pledge Drive and we still need 300 people to step up and make a gift to sustain our trustworthy, independent journalism.
Make a gift of any size and become a Forward member today. You’ll support our mission to tell the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
Only 300 more gifts needed by April 30