JERUSALEM
By Abdel-Raouf Arnaout
U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry hopes to give fresh impetus to stalled Palestinian-Israeli peace talks in order to counter Palestinian plans to propose a draft resolution at the U.N. Security Council for a timetable for ending the Israeli occupation, an Israeli newspaper has reported.
Quoting unnamed Israeli officials, Haaretz reported that Kerry had asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a recent meeting in New York whether he was prepared to resume talks with Palestinian negotiators based on 1967 borders with territorial swaps.
According to the paper, the U.S. administration believes the Palestinian request threatens to put the peace process in crisis.
It would also put Washington, which hopes to maintain its Arab allies in its coalition against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) militant group, in a difficult position if it vetoes the draft resolution, the paper reported.
A senior Israeli official who was briefed on the meeting in New York two weeks ago said that while Netanyahu had not rejected Kerry's ideas outright, he did not appear enthusiastic.
Palestinian-Israeli peace talks ground to halt in April after Israel failed to honor an earlier promise to release a number of Palestinian prisoners.
A Palestinian draft resolution, according to recent statements by Palestinian Authority (PA) President Mahmoud Abbas at the U.N. General Assembly, would seek to achieve a "two-state solution," providing the Palestinians with a sovereign state inside pre-1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.
Meanwhile, a PA official told Anadolu Agency that the organization had no knowledge of a fresh U.S. peace drive.
"The Americans told us the only way to the two-state solution was direct negotiations, saying they had not given up on efforts in this regard," the official, who asked not to be named, told AA.
However, he added, Kerry had told Abbas at a recent meeting in New York that Washington was opposed to the proposed resolution, hinting that the U.S. would veto it at the U.N. Security Council.
www.aa.com.tr/en
