The State Department said on Thursday that progress was being made in U.S.-mediated negotiations between the Israelis and Palestinians meant to keep peace talks going, but denied reports from the region that there had been an agreement. “Our negotiating team and both parties remain in intensive negotiation. They had another meeting today. The gaps are…
What’s the fallback plan? That’s the question increasingly on the minds of Middle East policymakers and analysts as Secretary of State John Kerry struggles to save the Israeli-Palestinian peace process from collapse. For the Palestinians, the path forward in the event of a collapse is clear: They will seek international recognition as a state in…
Addressing the United Nations General Assembly in September, President Barack Obama declared the pursuit of Israeli-Palestinian peace one of the two main U.S. foreign policy priorities for his second term. Fast-forward to today, the Obama administration faces a stark choice: expend more energy on a faltering peace process or absorb the hit to an already-troubled…
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…
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