Published on September 17, 2010
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said the Israeli and Palestinian leaders are committed and serious about making peace, which is “within reach.”
She was speaking in Amman on Thursday after talks with King Abdullah II as this week’s thorny peace talks continue apace between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas.
“They are serious about this effort. They are committed. They have begun to grapple with the hard but necessary questions,” Clinton said of the two men.
“With the commitment of an Israeli prime minister and a Palestinian president who both embrace the goal of a two-state solution, peace is once again within reach.”
Speaking at a press conference with Jordanian counterpart Nasser Judeh, she said Netanyahu and Abbas “can make the difficult decisions necessary to resolve all the … issues within one year.”
She added that she is “convinced that this the time and these are the leaders who can achieve the results we all seek, two states, two peoples living in peace and security.
Clinton was in Amman after meeting in the West Bank with Abbas, who publicly pledged his support for the US-backed peace talks despite continuing difficulties over the question of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank.
Abbas said “conditions are difficult” but that “there is no choice but negotiations.”
Abbas spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina said the talks were “in-depth and serious” and that the discussions would continue on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly meeting in New York next week.
But a senior Palestinian official said the “gap remains wide” on the settlements dispute despite Clinton’s intervention during the past two days of peace talks in Egypt and Jerusalem.
The talks “were difficult and made no progress,” he said about a trilateral meeting on Wednesday in Jerusalem.
In that meeting Abbas again threatened to quit the peace talks if Israel did not renew a moratorium on the construction of new homes in West Bank settlements that expires at the end of the month, according to a senior aide.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has thus far refused to extend the partial ban despite the urging of US President Barack Obama, though he has hinted he would confine building to major settlement blocs.
The Palestinians want to focus on reaching a deal on final borders as a way of resolving the settlements dispute, and US mediators have suggested a three-month extension of the moratorium to allow for such a deal, the Palestinian official said.