Kerry to Focus on Palestinian Economy as Part of Peace Process
|
Version 0 of 1. JERUSALEM — Secretary of State John Kerry signaled Monday that he is hoping to use the economic development of Palestinian areas on the West Bank as a means to build support for a new set of Middle East peace negotiations. “I’m having discussions about those steps that would get at this issue of mistrust,” Mr. Kerry told reporters after meetings on Monday with Israeli and Palestinian officials. One step, he added, is to move on the “economic front because that can be critical to changing perceptions and realities on the ground, all of which can contribute to forward momentum.” Mr. Kerry’s latest trip here represents a new phase of American involvement in Middle East diplomacy. On both the Israeli and the Palestinian sides, officials said Mr. Kerry’s personal engagement appeared at the least to have put the peace process back on the agenda for the first time in years. After meeting on Sunday night with Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the Palestinian Authority, Mr. Kerry met on Monday with Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian prime minister, and Shimon Peres, the Israeli president. Mr. Kerry also attended Israel’s annual Holocaust Memorial Day ceremony at Yad Vashem, the memorial for the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, which he said he found moving. On Monday night, Mr. Kerry had a dinner meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and was scheduled to have another session with him on Tuesday morning. Mr. Kerry has not talked in detail about the idea he has been discussing and has even asked Palestinian officials he consulted not to share it. But he outlined the tenets of his thinking in a Monday meeting with reporters, stating that the “festering absence of peace” was being used by extremist groups around the world to recruit supporters. Without a reinvigorated peace process, he said, the window for a comprehensive peace settlement that would lead to an independent Palestinian state would begin to close. “One of the reasons for these early interventions is to get right at the issue of mistrust,” he said, referring to his flurry of meetings. “I am convinced that we can break that down,” he said. “This process should not be rushed, subject to some sort of external time limit or artificial process, because it’s too important.” Mr. Kerry has yet to elaborate on how he would strengthen the economy of the Palestinians. But the basic idea is to make the area more economically viable in the hope of giving the Palestinian leaders more of a stake in a revived peace process and providing Israel with a credible negotiating partner. A Palestinian official, who asked not to be identified because he was discussing private diplomatic discussions, said the Palestinians had presented a paper to President Obama last month detailing several economic projects that the official said were “important for building capacity” for a future Palestinian state. The proposed projects were mainly in the roughly 60 percent of the West Bank known as Area C, where Israel maintains full security and civilian control under the terms of the Oslo Accords, the 1990s agreements between Israel and the Palestinians. One example of the kind of project the Palestinians have in mind is a tourism development along the northern shore of the Dead Sea, the official said. Any Palestinian initiatives in Area C, however, have to be coordinated with Israel. And Palestinians and international experts have long argued that limits on Palestinian economic activity there have stymied Palestinian growth. The Palestinian news agency Ma’an reported that in his meeting with Mr. Abbas, Mr. Kerry said that if the Palestinians returned to the negotiations they would receive several benefits, including the transfer of more land to the control of the Palestinian Authority, enabling construction in Area C. There was no indication that the Palestinians had dropped their preconditions that Israel must stop settlement construction and agree to release Palestinian prisoners before talks can resume. Still, the Palestinian official said Mr. Kerry was “well trusted” on the Palestinian side. “He does not want to get engaged in another 20 years of negotiations,” the official said, adding, “He made that clear.” After his one-hour meeting with Mr. Kerry, Mr. Peres said in an interview that all parties agreed there was a need to “move fast” and that a return of Kissinger-like shuttle diplomacy was a possibility. Mr. Peres’s job as president is mostly ceremonial. But Mr. Netanyahu has in the past leaned on Mr. Peres’s experience as a veteran of Israeli politics and a Nobel Peace Prize laureate. Mr. Peres said he still maintained his own connections with the Palestinian leadership, with the knowledge of the Israeli government. “I think the most important point right now is time,” he said. “The Middle East today is like a watch without hands.” |