Middle East peace talks: a status report

A day after Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu held talks in London, a State Department official has provided guidance on the current status of the talks:

We are still engaged in the current round of conversations with Israel, the Palestinians, and Arab states.

As you know, there have been several inaccurate reports throughout this period about the status and nature of our discussions with Israel and other parties, and any reports that we have come to an agreement are premature. We hope to conclude this phase of discussions soon, but we have not concluded it yet. Senator Mitchell just met with Prime Minister Netanyahu in London to continue these discussions.

We are asking all parties to take serious, historic steps that will help lay the foundation for the resumption of meaningful negotiations that will lead to the establishment of a Palestinian state alongside Israel and comprehensive regional peace.

For the Israelis, this means stopping settlement activity and taking other steps to improve the daily life of Palestinians and live up to Roadmap obligations. For the Palestinians, this means taking measures to prevent terror and incitement and redouble efforts to reform Palestinian institutions.

We are also asking Arab states to take steps towards normalization with Israel, in the spirit of the Arab Peace Initiative.

Bottom line, the State Department official said: the talks continue.

Another official, responding earlier today to reports in the Israeli media which suggested that a deal was close and that the U.S. would drop its demands on a halt to Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, said the reports are not accurate. There is no deal yet, and it’s not yet close, he said.  Nor is there a breakdown or crisis, for that matter. 

Netanyahu may agree to in practice refrain from further Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, but not have such a ban formally included in an announcement designed to make way for the parties to come together for negotiations, a Washington Middle East hand said he has heard is being considered. 

"The bargaining continues next week" — when an Israeli delegation comes to Washington to have further follow on talks with Mitchell, a former senior White House official said.  "And the final deal will be done when POTUS and [Netanyahu] meet" around the UN General Assembly opening session next month.  

The Obama administration hopes to have Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas meet in New York on the sidelines of the UN powwow, the Washington Middle East hand said.

Don’t expect a grand plan to be announced there, but more broad principles and a rough timeline for going forward to be announced at that time, several Middle East experts have suggested. They said the model for talks that the administration seems to be leaning towards is closer to the George H.W. Bush-era Madrid peace talks  — a small, focused conference, rather than a huge confab to which everyone’s invited such as the Annapolis peace conference that the George W. Bush administration convened in 2007.

Several Middle East hands have suggested Russia is likely to be tapped to host a possible peace conference, with a possible side benefit being in plumping Moscow’s pride and trying to get its cooperation on possible increased international sanctions on Iran. Russia, a member with Washington, the UN and the European Union of the Middle East Quartet, was a co-sponsor of the Madrid peace talks. France is also mentioned as a possible host of a prospective peace conference.