"Now is a very timely opportunity for him [Obama] to get
involved," U.S. official tells The New York Times • Obama to pressure Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to
accept U.S. framework proposal.
Daniel Siryoti, Israel Hayom Staff and News Agencies
U.S. President Barack Obama plans to take a more active
role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiations, The New York Times reported
on Wednesday, quoting Obama administration officials.
Obama will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on
Monday at the White House and will push him to agree to the framework deal
currently being drafted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, the report said.
Obama will also likely meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas
later in March. U.S. officials told the newspaper that the goal is to reach a
framework deal by the end of April.
"Now is a very timely opportunity for him to get
involved," a senior U.S. official said of Obama.
Once a framework deal is agreed upon, the peace
negotiations could be extended, with the target being a final peace agreement by
the end of 2014.
"The president wouldn't want to run any risk that it was
the lack of his involvement that would make the difference between success and
failure," a senior U.S. official said.
Obama administration officials told The Times that the
framework deal will cover all the major final-status issues. Both sides will be
able to express reservations about the deal "as they don't vitiate the
framework," an official said.
Kerry said on Wednesday of his ongoing efforts to broker
an Israeli-Palestinian peace agreement, "I wouldn't be pursuing it if I didn't
think it was worthwhile. I hope we are not wasting our time."
"I hope very much that we are able to get both parties to
do what is necessary to enter the most critical stage of this, which is the
final phase, the final status negotiation ... around a framework which is clear
and defined," Kerry said.
Palestinian Authority officials are angry about a proposal
Kerry made to Abbas last week that the Beit Hanina neighborhood, rather than all
of east Jerusalem, would become the capital of a Palestinian state.
Abbas confidants told the Palestinian newspaper Al-Quds
that Abbas was outraged by the American proposal, calling it "crazy."
The report said Kerry's framework proposal includes
Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, the Israeli annexation of
10 settlement blocs with the Palestinians receiving uninhabited land in
exchange, and exclusion of the Jordan Valley from a Palestinian state. According
to the report, Abbas told Kerry that if the American proposal stays as it is,
the Palestinians would withdraw from the peace negotiations.
Meanwhile, Jordanian Prime Minister Abdullah Ensour warned
on Wednesday that the application of Israeli sovereignty on the Temple Mount in
Jerusalem would represent a "blatant violation of the peace treaty" between the
two countries.
"In the accord, Jordan was given custodianship of the
Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem, thus any attempt to challenge this position
should be seen as a violation of the peace agreement," Ensour said.
Ensour's statement was prompted by a Knesset debate earlier this week on the issue of sovereignty
on the Temple Mount.
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