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Kerry Announces ‘Basis’ for Restarting Mideast Talks Kerry Achieves Deal to Revive Mideast Talks
(about 4 hours later)
AMMAN, Jordan — Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed to take steps toward resuming formal peace negotiations, after an intensive round of American shuttle diplomacy “established a basis” for the first direct talks in three years, Secretary of State John Kerry said Friday. AMMAN, Jordan — Israeli and Palestinian leaders have “established a basis” to resume direct peace negotiations for the first time in three years, Secretary of State John Kerry announced Friday, after an intense round of shuttle diplomacy aimed at reviving the dormant Middle East peace process.
The preliminary agreement is the first incremental success for the Obama administration in trying to broker a Middle East peace agreement after an attempt at the outset of President Obama’s first term ended in acrimony. The preliminary agreement is the Obama administration’s first incremental success in efforts to convene talks since the president’s attempt to broker a deal early in his first term ended in acrimony. If negotiations develop beyond what Mr. Kerry described as an “initial” phase by chief negotiators, it would be the first face-to-face meeting of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israeli and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority since the Arab Spring upended politics across the Middle East.
After multiple meetings with both parties in recent weeks, Mr. Kerry, speaking after a session here in Amman, said that both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, had made courageous decisions and he was “hopeful” that talks would resume. After multiple, marathon sessions with each man in recent weeks, Mr. Kerry said here Friday that both had shown “courageous leadership” that made him “hopeful” about the prospects for resolving the intractable conflict. He said that if “everything goes as expected,” Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator; Tzipi Livni, the Israeli minister in charge of the peace process; and Isaac Molho, Mr. Netanyahu’s special envoy, would join him for talks in Washington “within the next week or so.”
Mr. Kerry said that if “everything goes as expected,” senior Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would join him in Washington within the next week or so to begin initial talks. They would make a further announcement at that time. “The representatives of two proud peoples today have decided that the difficult road ahead is worth traveling and that the daunting challenges that we face are worth tackling,” Mr. Kerry said in Amman, the Jordanian capital, on Friday night before flying back to Washington. “They have courageously recognized that in order for Israelis and Palestinians to live together side by side in peace and security, they must begin by sitting at the table together in direct talks.”
There was no indication that either the Israelis or Palestinians had compromised on core issues — such as ending Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank or allowing Palestinians to claim East Jerusalem as the capital of their future state — that have sunk previous negotiations. Rather, this round of diplomacy was very preliminary, aimed at getting the parties back into negotiating face to face. There was no indication that either the Israelis or the Palestinians had compromised on core issues — such as ending Israeli settlement activity in the West Bank or conceding the right of return of Palestinian refugees — that have sunk previous negotiations. Rather, this round of diplomacy was focused on getting distrusting adversaries to sit in the same room.
But after years of stalemate in which the prospects of creating side-by-side Israeli and Palestinian states seemed to fade, even as a goal of American and regional diplomacy, the resumption of a peace process marks a shift in politics-as-usual in the region. But after years of stalemate in which the prospects of creating side-by-side Israeli and Palestinian states seemed to fade, even as a goal of American and regional diplomacy, the resumption of a process of talks counts as progress, some analysts said.
Mr. Kerry said that the two sides had agreed that only he would make statements about the peace process until then. The diplomats to meet in Washington are Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator; Tzipi Livni, the Israeli justice minister, who is in charge of peace talks with the Palestinians; and Isaac Molho, an aide to Mr. Netanyahu. “He’s gotten them into the pool,” said David Makovsky, director of a project on the peace process at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, referring to Mr. Kerry. “Right now they’re in the very shallow end, and they’re going to have to swim in deeper waters — and they can be treacherous. It’s still an achievement that he got them into the pool.”The agreement to take the first steps toward negotiations came after Mr. Kerry repeatedly extended his visit, the sixth to the region since March in what has been his main focus as secretary of state. On Wednesday, he won an endorsement from the Arab League of a “formula” involving economic incentives for Palestinians and security assurances for Israel along with a new political framework for the talks, but the Palestinian leadership balked at the proposal Thursday night.
“On behalf of President Obama, I am pleased to announce that we have reached an agreement that establishes a basis for resuming direct final status negotiations between the Palestinians and the Israelis,” Mr. Kerry said. “This is a significant and welcome step forward. On Friday, Mr. Kerry met twice here in Amman with Mr. Erekat and then traveled by helicopter to the West Bank to see Mr. Abbas at his Ramallah headquarters. He apparently won concessions on the new framework, which American, Israeli and Palestinian officials said would allow Washington to declare the 1967 prewar borders as the basis for the talks — along with the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state — but allow Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas to distance themselves from those terms.
“The agreement is still in the process of being formalized, so we are absolutely not going to talk about any of the elements now.” Some actions on confidence-building measures — perhaps a release of Palestinians serving long terms in Israeli jails and a Palestinian agreement to postpone participation in international organizations based on the observer-state status it won at the United Nations General Assembly last fall — must yet be taken, which is why a date has not been finalized for the Washington meeting.
Mr. Kerry made the remarks after returning to Amman, the capital of Jordan, from Ramallah, in the West Bank, where he held his third meeting in four days with Mr. Abbas. Mr. Kerry said the sides had agreed not to disclose details of the deal. It remained unclear whether the negotiators had more work to do around the terms of the talks or would be tackling more substantive matters.
He had looked upbeat as he greeted Mr. Abbas. “Mr. President, you should look happy,” Mr. Kerry said. He was accompanied by his Middle East adviser, Frank Lowenstein, and Mr. Abbas by Mr. Erekat. “They may be talking about process at first,” said a senior State Department official, speaking on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the diplomacy. “They may be talking about an agenda. I don’t think they are going to sit down and draw lines on a map.”
Before visiting Ramallah, Mr. Kerry spent two hours in two sessions in Amman with Mr. Erekat, who brought him concerns expressed by leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization in a late-night conclave on Thursday. Late Friday night, Ms. Livni posted a message on her Facebook page declaring that “four years of political stagnation are coming to an end.”
“They did not reach final agreement on the core elements of the deal until this afternoon," a senior State Department official said. “I know that, despite this being an opportunity, once the negotiations begin they will be complex,” she wrote. “In that room we will maintain the national and the security interests of Israel as a Jewish and democratic state — to that I vouch.”
Though Mr. Kerry and a team of diplomats and businessmen have spent months fine-tuning a broad package of economic incentives, security assurances and political gestures in hopes of bringing the two sides to the negotiating table, the border question seems to be among the major sticking points. Ahmad Abbas, director of the Palestinian Authority planning ministry, said in an interview that “all the big issues — Jerusalem, settlements, refugees — have been postponed until further notice,” but that the “Americans agreed to provide guarantees which would not turn our faces red” regarding the future borders.
Mr. Abbas has for years insisted that any new talks be conducted on the basis of Israel’s borders before it seized Arab territories in the 1967 war, with minor adjustments. Mr. Netanyahu has just as steadfastly refused. “Financially, we are going to solve our problems,” he said. “We have to choose the best option among the evil ones.”
To skirt that apparent stalemate, Mr. Kerry’s team has tried to come up with a new framework, according to American, Israeli and Palestinian officials who have been involved in the process. The obstacles to any substantive peace agreement remain formidable on both sides, and it is unclear whether either party is contemplating real concessions, or is even fully focused on resuming the intractable peace process.
One possibility, they said, is that the United States will invite the two sides to the talks on the basis of the 1967 prewar borders and the recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, though Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas would not explicitly endorse those terms and might even oppose them while agreeing to negotiate. The 78-year-old Mr. Abbas presides over a fiercely divided people, with the militant Hamas movement ruling the Gaza Strip and his more moderate Fatah faction dominating the West Bank. His political weakness was apparent this week at stormy leadership meetings. Mr. Netanyahu, meanwhile, heads a fragile, conservative governing coalition and political party in which many key figures virulently oppose the establishment of a Palestinian state, in a nation more focused than ever on domestic concerns.
Mr. Kerry’s ideas on how to approach economic, security and political issues won the backing Wednesday of a group of Arab League foreign ministers, but he has not yet convinced the P.L.O. leadership. Dennis B. Ross, a former American peace envoy to the Middle East, said that given those internal political challenges, having the talks start at the negotiator-level and remaining mum about the terms were smart steps by Mr. Kerry.
After a stormy two-hour meeting here Thursday afternoon, several participants said it was “not enough.” “You don’t need another situation where you bring the leaders together and build the expectations that you’re going to have a dramatic breakthrough,” Mr. Ross said. “There probably isn’t a complete meeting of the minds, but there’s enough convergence there and enough confidence in him that they each feel they can proceed. Better not to say certain things that might require one or the other to respond or qualify.”
Mr. Erekat’s main objection, according to a Palestinian official who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the situation, was that “clarifications are needed on Israeli acceptance of the 1967 border.” The last round between Mr. Netanyahu and Mr. Abbas, in 2010, broke down after 16 hours of talks over three weeks. This time, according to Israeli news reports, both sides have agreed to negotiate for at least six months.
A spokesman for Mr. Netanyahu declined to discuss the diplomacy on Friday. A leading lawmaker from his Likud Party, Tzachi Hanegbi, said in an interview on Israel Radio that “Israel can never return to the 1967 borders,” in which Jerusalem was divided, but that once negotiations start, “we must discuss everything.” But those involved in the process and expert analysts agree that the hard part is yet to come.
“We reject Palestinian dictates as preconditions for being willing to hold a dialogue with us,” Mr. Hanegbi said. “The Americans, it seems, understand the logic of this, and that is why their main efforts are invested in the Palestinians.” He described the current situation as “the classic model of a tango,” adding, “One step forward, two steps back.” “If the negotiations will start, then the problem begins,” one senior Israeli official said, also on the condition of anonymity. “This is just the foreplay.”
While Mr. Kerry continued his shuttle diplomacy in his sixth visit to the region since March, the European Union proceeded with its planned publication of new guidelines banning the financing of or cooperation with institutions located in territories Israel seized in 1967, despite an intense Israeli effort against it. European and Israeli officials said they would work together to clarify the new guidelines before they come into effect Jan. 1.
Catherine Ashton, the European Union’s foreign affairs chief, said in a statement that the rules “reiterate a long-held position” regarding Israeli activity in the territories — the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Golan Heights and East Jerusalem — but that the European Union would “recognize changes made to the borders once agreed to by both parties.”
An American official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, had described the European Union move as “unhelpful.” Ms. Ashton rebutted criticism that the timing of the guidelines could undermine Mr. Kerry’s initiative, saying the union “fully supports” it.
Mr. Netanyahu has objected vigorously to the European Union’s move.
President Obama spoke by phone with Mr. Netanyahu on Thursday. According to a statement released by the White House, the two leaders discussed developments in Egypt, Iran and Syria.
“The president encouraged Prime Minister Netanyahu to continue to work with Secretary Kerry to resume negotiations with the Palestinians as soon as possible,” the White House statement said.

Michael R. Gordon reported from Amman, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.

Michael R. Gordon reported from Amman, and Jodi Rudoren from Jerusalem.