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Kerry Says Goal Is Mideast Peace Deal Within 9 Months Kerry Says Goal Is Mideast Peace Deal Within 9 Months
(about 7 hours later)
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry said on Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would convene again in the Middle East within two weeks and that their goal would be to work out a comprehensive peace agreement within nine months. WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would convene again in the Middle East within two weeks and that their goal would be to work out a comprehensive peace agreement within nine months that would lead to an independent Palestinian state.
Mr. Kerry described the talks here on Monday and Tuesday as constructive, and said they had involved three-way discussions that included the United States, as well as direct discussions between the Israelis and the Palestinians. He said that the next meeting would mark the beginning of formal negotiations on the major issues, and that it would take place in Israel or the West Bank.  “The parties have agreed to remain engaged in sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues,” Mr. Kerry said at the State Department, flanked by Tzipi Livni, Israel’s justice minister, and Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator.
“The parties have agreed to remain engaged in sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues,” said Mr. Kerry, who was flanked by Tzipi Livni, Israel’s justice minister, and Saeb Erekat, the chief Palestinian negotiator. “Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months,” Mr. Kerry said. “We all understand the goal that we’re working towards: two states living side by side in peace and security.”
“Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months,” Mr. Kerry said. “We all understand the goal we are working towards: two states living side by side in peace and security.” As they resume peace talks that have been moribund since 2010, Mr. Kerry and other Obama administration officials are seeking to counter the widely held perception in the Middle East that President Obama has been detached from the peacemaking effort and that this recent initiative is largely due to the efforts of his secretary of state.
Earlier in the day, Mr. Kerry and the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators went to the White House to meet with President Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. Mr. Kerry and the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators met with Mr. Obama and Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. at the White House for almost 30 minutes on Tuesday morning. “The president used this opportunity to convey his appreciation to both sides for the leadership and courage they have shown in coming to the table, and to directly express his personal support for final status talks,” Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said later.
Mr. Kerry said he was well aware that many experts and former officials thought that in seeking an agreement he was taking on an impossible mission. But many experts say that Mr. Obama will need to become much more involved if the talks are to succeed. 
“I know that the path is difficult,” he said. “There is no shortage of passionate skeptics.” Mr. Kerry was also at pains to battle skeptics who have all but written off the prospects for a breakthrough. “I know the path is difficult,” he said. “There is no shortage of passionate skeptics.”
But Mr. Kerry said that he thought a peace agreement was possible, and that both sides owed it to future generations to try. But Mr. Kerry said a peace agreement was possible, and that both sides owed it to future generations to try. “While I understand the skepticism, I don’t share it, and I don’t think we have time for it,” he said.
Martin S. Indyk, Mr. Kerry’s envoy to the talks, is expected to be present when the two sides next meet. The talks here on Monday and Tuesday — which involved three-way meetings that included the United States as well as direct discussions between the Israelis and the Palestinians — were largely procedural and did not grapple directly with the difficult “final-status” issues like borders, the status of Jerusalem and the Palestinians’ right to return to what is now Israeli territory.
“When somebody tells you that Israelis and Palestinians cannot find common ground,” Mr. Kerry said, “don’t believe them.”  But all of those vexing issues are to be taken up now. 
“The parties have agreed here today that all of the final-status issues, all of the core issues, and all other issues are all on the table for negotiation,” Mr. Kerry said in his remarks, which were made in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Room.
 “They are on the table with one single goal: a view to ending the conflict, ending the claims,” he added.
American officials said they expected Israel to take steps soon to improve the atmosphere for negotiations by relaxing controls and regulations that have hampered private-sector investment in the West Bank. A centerpiece of Mr. Kerry’s initiative is a plan to attract as much as $4 billion in job-creating investment in the West Bank, though most of it would depend on the successful resolution of the conflict.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel also cleared the way for the resumption of talks on the politically contentious decision, approved by his cabinet, for the phased release of 104 Palestinian prisoners, most of whom have served 20 years or more for attacks on Israelis.
 Mr. Kerry did not press for an Israeli commitment to freeze settlement construction as a condition for resuming talks. American officials made clear they were hoping for, but not counting on, Israeli restraint.
A senior State Department official told reporters that the United States was hoping that each side would “take steps to create a positive atmosphere,” but added, “It is fair to say that you are likely to see Israeli settlement activity continue.”
The next round of negotiations is to be held in Israel or the West Bank. Martin S. Indyk,  Mr. Kerry’s newly announced envoy to the talks, is expected to be present.
“Palestinians have suffered enough, and no one benefits more from the success of this endeavor,” Mr. Erekat said. “I am delighted that all final status issues are on the table and will be resolved without any exceptions, and it’s time for the Palestinian people to have an independent, sovereign state of their own.”
Ms. Livni, addressing Mr. Erekat, said the two sides needed to look beyond the problems that had frustrated talks in the past.
“You know, Saeb, we all spent some time in the negotiations room,” she said. “We didn’t reach dead end in the past, but we didn’t complete our mission. A new opportunity is being created for us, for all of us, and we cannot afford to waste it.”