John Kerry Talks Peace Prospects With Israeli and Palestinian Leaders
Image by Getty Images
John Kerry spoke with Israeli and Palestinian leaders about peace prospects in the Middle East.
Kerry, the U.S. secretary of state, spoke on the phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Tuesday and met Wednesday with Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.
Kerry raised with Netanyahu the Obama administration’s call for Israel to reverse its decision this week to appropriate 1,000 acres of West Bank land for settlement expansion, spokeswoman Jen Psaki said.
At their meeting Wednesday, Erekat presented to Kerry a plan for an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank within three years based on U.N. resolutions.
On Thursday, Psaki’s deputy, Marie Harf, would not comment on Erekat’s proposal.
“It was a constructive conversation, covered a range of issues including Gaza, Israeli-Palestinian relations and recent developments in the region,” she said. “They agreed to keep talking in the weeks ahead.”
Kerry, after intensive efforts to advance peace talks, has pulled back from involvement since talks collapsed in April.
Psaki said that Netanyahu and Kerry also discussed the threat posed in the Middle East by Islamist extremists, particularly the Islamic State, or ISIS, which this week beheaded Steven Sotloff, a journalist who was a dual Israeli-American citizen.
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
Now more than ever, American Jews need independent news they can trust, with reporting driven by truth, not ideology. We serve you, not any ideological agenda.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and the protests on college campuses.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
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.
