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US indicates push for framework Israel-Palestinian deal
Both US President Obama and Secretary of State John Kerry indicated over the weekend that Washington will push for a framework agreement to break the deadlock in negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority (PA).
Although Kerry brokered the resumption of peace talks in July, they have subsequently made little real progress. He visited the region last week and is thought to have presented both sides with in-depth security plans for the West Bank. In comments made to the Saban policy forum over the weekend, both Obama and Kerry indicated that although a nine-month timeframe had been set to agree a comprehensive peace deal, they are now aiming for a framework agreement as a basis for further progress.
Obama said, “I think it is possible over the next several months to arrive at a framework that does not address every single detail but gets us to a point where everybody recognizes better to move forward than move backwards.” Kerry also outlined, “A basic framework… to address all the core issues – borders, security, refugees, Jerusalem, mutual recognition, and an end of claims. And it will have to establish agreed guidelines for subsequent negotiations that will fill out the details in a full-on peace treaty.”
However, such a framework would need to take into account Israel’s two core demands, as articulated by Prime Minister Netanyahu in recent weeks, a continued security presence in the Jordan Valley and Palestinian recognition of “the national rights of the Jewish people in the State of Israel.” Meanwhile, Palestinian compliance would likely require recognition of the pre-1967 armistice lines as the basis for a territorial solution and address demands for a capital in East Jerusalem and a “just solution” for Palestinian refugees.
Meanwhile, this morning’s Maariv suggests Kerry has requested that Israel delay the release of a third group of Palestinian prisoners since the resumption of peace negotiations in July, in order to apply pressure on PA President Mahmoud Abbas to show greater flexibility in negotiations.