US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday urged Palestinians and Israelis to resume peace talks “without preconditions,” backing Palestinian aims for a state along the 1967 boundaries.
However, trying to revive Obama administration diplomacy that fell flat last year, Clinton said the lines would be modified through mutually agreed land swaps, presumably to account for some Israeli settlements that would remain.
Flanked by Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh, Clinton urged the Palestinians to try to stop settlement building through negotiations on core issues rather than conditioning the resumption of talks on a total freeze.
“As Minister Judeh and I discussed earlier, resolving borders resolves settlements. Resolving Jerusalem resolves settlements,” the chief US diplomat told reporters.
“We are working with the Israelis, the [Palestinian Authority] and the Arab states to take the steps needed to relaunch the negotiations as soon as possible and without preconditions,” Clinton said.
The parties can reach a solution that “reconciles the Palestinian goal of an independent and viable state based on the 1967 lines, with agreed swaps and the Israeli goal of a Jewish state with secure and recognized borders,” she said.
Clinton was referring to the boundaries existing before the Arab-Israeli war in 1967, moving in the direction of Palestinian demands for a state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip with east Jerusalem as its capital.
The US says the status of Jerusalem, all of which Israel claims as its capital, and the exact boundaries of a future state must be determined through negotiations.
In her opening remarks, Clinton also said both Washington and Amman were “concerned about recent activities in Jerusalem,” echoing their opposition to new Jewish settlement building in annexed Arab east Jerusalem.
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