BICOM

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said yesterday that the US plan for Israeli-Palestinian talks will be unveiled after the Israeli elections on 9 April.

Speaking to the Davos conference via a video link, Pompeo said: “We’ve been working on this for a long time … we’ve begun to share elements of this across the region. It won’t be a US driven process. Ultimately, the Israelis and the Palestinians will have to come to an agreement. But we think that the foundations that we have laid and the work that we’ll do immediately following the Israeli elections will set conditions where we can have a constructive conversation.”

The Trump administration recently announced a delay to its plan until after the elections in Israel. Israel’s Channel 13 News reported last week that the plan will include a Palestinian state in 85-90 per cent of the West Bank, a division of Jerusalem into two capitals, alongside a plan for the settlements. The White House dismissed the report.

The UN’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, Nicolay Mladenov, addressed a special Middle East session of the UN Security Council yesterday, saying: “Those who believe that the conflict can be managed in perpetuity are wrong. There is no status quo; there is only a deterioration that, if left unchecked …    can only lead to endless conflict and the steady rise of radicalisation on all sides.”

Palestinian Ambassador to the UN, Riyad Mansour, and Israel’s Ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, also addressed the UN Security Council. Mansour said the Palestinians are determined to preserve the two-state solution but warned: “Day by day, the occupation is destroying the two-state solution and sowing deep despair among our people.” Danon spoke of ties between Iran and groups in the West Bank saying: “Iran is trying to turn Judea and Samaria into a fourth military front against Israel.”