Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has ordered a halt to high-level contacts with the Palestinians on non-security related issues, but exempted his chief peace negotiator from the ban, government officials said on Wednesday. One Israeli official called Netanyahu’s order a response to “the Palestinians’ grave violation of their commitments in the framework of the peace…
Secretary of State John Kerry suggested on Tuesday that Israel’s refusal to free Palestinian prisoners and its announcement of plans to build about 700 housing units in East Jerusalem was the proximate cause for the near collapse of its peace talks with the Palestinians. However, State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry was not seeking…
(JTA) — Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid said he supports freezing settlement growth to help jump-start peace negotiations and vowed that his centrist Yesh Atid party would leave Israel’s governing coalition if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu were responsible for the collapse of the peace process. In an interview this week with JTA, his first with an…
Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman called for new national elections during a speech in New York, saying he preferred a poll to freeing more Palestinian prisoners. Liberman, who is scheduled to meet in Washington with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry later this week, made the call for new elections during an annual conference sponsored…
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry warned on Friday the United States was evaluating whether to continue its role in Middle East peace talks after both Israeli and Palestinian sides had taken steps that were not helpful. Speaking during a visit to Morocco, Kerry said it was “reality check time” and there was a limit…
When Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas signed onto 15 international conventions on Tuesday, he shocked the U.S. sponsors of troubled Middle East peace talks. But the move was carefully limited to avoid American retaliation. Abbas’s action may have been designed more as a symbolic act of defiance to shore up his tenuous standing among Palestinians frustrated…
Talks between Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are at a critical moment although progress was made in overnight discussions, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said on Thursday. “The dialogue remains open. There was progress made in narrowing some of questions that have arisen as a result of the last few days but there is still…
Washington is keeping up efforts to put Israel-Palestinian peace negotiations back on track despite “unhelpful steps” taken by both sides in the past day, a senior U.S. official said on Wednesday. A surprise decision by Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday to sign more than a dozen international conventions that could give Palestinians greater leverage…
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