AMMAN, Jordan - U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday that Israel and the Palestinian Authority had “established a basis” for resuming formal peace talks for the first time since 2010, and he hoped they would meet in Washington within a week or “very soon thereafter.”
Kerry said Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian president, had made courageous decisions and that he was “hopeful” that talks would resume.
The secretary of state said that if “everything goes as expected,” senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would join him in Washington within the next week or so to begin initial talks. They would make a further announcement at that time.
Kerry said the two sideshad agreed that only he would make statements about the peace process until then. The diplomats to meet in Washington within the next week or so are Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator; Tzipi Livni, the Israeli justice minister, who is in charge of peace talks with the Palestinians; and Isaac Molho, a Netanyahu aide.
“On behalf of President Obama, I am pleased to an-nounce that we have reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct final-status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Kerry said. “This is a significant and welcome step forward.
“The agreement is still in the process of being formalized, so we are absolutely not going to talk about any of the elements now.”
Final-status negotiations aim to reach a deal on the core issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, including borders, the fate of Palestinian refugees and security arrangements. Talks ground to a halt five years ago, and efforts since then to revive them have stalled, particularly over Palestinian demands that Israel announce a freeze in construction of Jewish settlements in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians claim as part of a future state along with Gaza.Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, and it is now ruled by the Hamas militant group, which rivals Abbas’ Palestinian Authority.
Still to be worked out in the forthcoming initial talks is the process of the final-status negotiations, including the agenda, a senior State Department official said. When the sides first meet, they will not be “sitting down to draw a line on the map,” the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the details.
Kerry made the remarks after returning to Amman from Ramallah, in the West Bank, where he met with Abbas, their third meeting in four days.
Upon entering the meeting with Abbas, Kerry looked upbeat.
“Mr. President, you should look happy,” Kerry said. He was accompanied by his Middle East adviser, Frank Lowenstein, and Abbas by Erekat.
Before arriving in Ramallah, Kerry spent two hours in two sessions in Amman with Erekat, who took with him concerns expressed by leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization in a late-night conclave Thursday.
Though Kerry and a team of diplomats and businessmen have spent months fine-tuning a broad package of economic incentives, security reassurances and political gestures in hopes of bringing the two sides to the negotiating table, the border question seems to be among the major sticking points.
Abbas has for years insisted that any new talks be conducted on the basis of Israel’s borders before it seized Arab territories in the 1967 war, with minor adjustments. Netanyahu has just as steadfastly refused.
To skirt that apparent stalemate, Kerry’s team has tried to come up with a new framework, according to U.S., Israeli and Palestinian officials who have been involved in the process.
One possibility, they said, is that the United States will invite the two sides to the talks on the basis of the 1967 prewar borders and the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, though Netanyahu and Abbas would not explicitly endorse those terms and might even oppose them while agreeing to negotiate.
Ahmed Majdalani, a Palestinian leader, said Kerry has proposed holding talks for six to nine months focusing on the key issues of borders and security arrangements.
He said Kerry would endorse the 1967 lines as the starting point of negotiations and assured the Palestinians that Israel would free some 350 prisoners gradually in the coming months. The prisoners would include some 100men that Israel convicted of crimes committed before interim peace accords were signed in 1993. Israel has balked at freeing these prisoners in the past because many were convicted in deadly attacks.
Kerry’s ideas on how to approach economic, security and political issues won the backing Wednesday of a group of Arab League foreign ministers, but he has not yet convinced the Palestine Liberation Organization leadership.
After a stormy two-hour meeting in Jordan on Thursday afternoon, several participants said it was “not enough.”
Erekat’s main objection, according to a Palestinian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation, was that “clarifications are needed on Israeli acceptance of the 1967 border.”
However, the Arab League decision Wednesday to endorse Kerry’s proposal raised speculation that the Palestinians would agree to talks. Abbas traditionally has sought the blessing of his Arab brethren before making any major diplomatic initiative.
A spokesman for Netanyahu declined to discuss the diplomacy Friday. A leading lawmaker from his Likud Party, Tzachi Hanegbi, said in an interview on Israel Radio that “Israel can never return to the 1967 borders,” in which Jerusalem was divided, but that once negotiations start, “we must discuss everything.
“We reject Palestinian dictates as preconditions for being willing to hold a dialogue with us,” Hanegbi said. “The Americans, it seems, understand the logic of this, and that is why their main efforts are invested in the Palestinians.”
He described the current situation as “the classic model of a tango,” adding, “One step forward, two steps back.”
Livni also made comments, in a posting on Facebook.
“I’m sure with all my heart that it is the right thing to do for our future, our security, for the economy and Israel’s values,” Livni wrote. “In the negotiating room, we will safeguard the national interests and security of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state - to this I am committed.”
The painstaking work that was required to reach the threshold of renewed negotiations doesn’t augur well for the prospects of ultimately securing a peace agreement, said Jonathan Spyer, a political scientist at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya, Israel.
“Nobody is going to be optimistic that this has a chance of reaching a compromise between the two sides any time soon,” Spyer said by telephone. “The amount of time it took” Kerry “just to get the sides to even agree to meet is the best indicator of just how slim the chances are of these talks getting anywhere.”
While Kerry continued his shuttle diplomacy in his sixth visit to the region since March, the European Union proceeded with its planned publication of new guidelines banning the financing of or cooperation with institutions located in territories Israel seized in the 1967 war, despite an intense Israeli effort to stop it. European and Israeli officials said they would work together to clarify implementation of the new guidelines before they become effective Jan. 1.
Catherine Ashton, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said in a statement that the rules “reiterate a long-held position” regarding Israeli activity in the territories - the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and east Jerusalem - but that the EU would “recognize changes made to the borders once agreed to by both parties.”
A U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had described the EU move as “unhelpful.” Ashton rebutted criticism that the timing of publication could undermine Kerry’s initiative, saying the EU “fully supports” it.
Netanyahu has objected vigorously to the EU’s move.
President Barack Obama spoke by phone with Netanyahu on Thursday. According to a statement released by the White House, the two leaders discussed developments in Egypt, Iran and Syria.
“The president encouraged Prime Minister Netanyahu to continue to work with Secretary Kerry to resume negotiations with the Palestinians as soon as possible,” the White House statement said.
Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Gordon and Jodi Rudoren of The New York Times; by Mattew Lee and Mohammed Daraghmeh of The Associated Press; and by Calev Ben-David, Saud Abu Ramadan, Indira A.R. Lakshmanan, Nicole Gaouette and Gwen Ackerman of Bloomberg News.
Front Section, Pages 1 on 07/20/2013