BICOM

Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will meet for lengthy talks today with US Secretary of State John Kerry in Rome.

Kol Yisrael radio quotes sources close to Netanyahu saying that at least five hours have been set aside for the talks this afternoon and evening. Meanwhile, Haaretz says that Netanyahu and Kerry are set for seven hours of talks, four of which will be without aides. High on the agenda will be the ongoing peace talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA) which resumed in July following intensive diplomacy by Kerry.

Speaking in Paris on Monday, Kerry said that the pace of negotiations had increased and that the two sides had met thirteen times since July, three times during the last few days. Kerry commented, “The pace has intensified, all the core issues are on the table.” Haaretz suggests that Kerry will use today’s meeting to attempt to drive the talks forward. The report speculates that Kerry will ask Netanyahu to specify clearly the compromises that he is willing to make in order to achieve a final status peace accord and outline what such an agreement would look like.

However, Israel Radio news says this morning that Netanyahu is also expected to focus on the issue of Iran’s nuclear development, in the wake of last week’s talks in Geneva between Iranian officials and representatives of the P5+1. Indeed, during a meeting with Italy’s Prime Minister Enrico Letta yesterday, Netanyahu emphasised the danger posed by Tehran’s diplomatic strategy. Netanyahu commented, “Iran says it wants a deal that will allow for civilian nuclear energy,” but in reality “if Iran retains these capabilities, it can move quickly to produce a [nuclear] bomb.” He added, “Our efforts toward peace can be severely harmed if Iran succeeds in it goals.”