Official: Washington will not pressure ‘Israel’ and Palestinians to resume direct negotiations

Washington (QNN)- The US State Department spokesman Ned Price said on Wednesday that Washington will not pressure ‘Israel’ and the Palestinians to resume direct negotiations, or take other action to improve the conditions for regional peace talks.

Price’s remarks came in response to a question posed at a press conference as he said that Washington is “seeking to see to it that Israelis and Palestinians experience equal measures of safety, of security, of prosperity, and of dignity, but we’ve also been very clear that the starting point that we have right now … is not one where I think we would expect to see direct negotiations between the parties lead to any sort of breakthrough in the near term.”

What the US wants to do, Price explained, is to “pave a path to negotiations” with the goal of seeing to it that Israelis and Palestinians can achieve safety, security, prosperity, and dignity.

However, Price said, the US was not explicitly calling for direct negotiations at this time.

“We are also under no illusions about where we are and where we aren’t in terms of what may be viable and what may be on the table,” Price said.

The US State Department spokesman opened the press briefing by noting the one-year anniversary of the so-called Abraham Accords, a pact brokered by the United States that saw the normalization of deals between the occupation state of ‘Israel’ and the UAE, Bahrain, Morocco and Sudan.

Palestinians condemned the normalization agreements, saying they encouraged Israel’s denial of their rights and do not serve the Palestinian cause.

Abu Dhabi said the deal was an effort to stave off Israel’s planned annexation of the occupied West Bank, however, opponents believe normalization efforts have been in the offing for many years as Israeli officials have made official visits to the UAE and attended conferences in the country which had no diplomatic or other ties with the occupation state.

“Peace is possible and worthwhile for the leaders who courageously pursue it – and for their peoples,” Price said.

“We will endeavor to ensure that as Israel and other countries in the region join together in a common effort to build bridges and create avenues for dialogue and exchange, we are able to make tangible progress towards the goal of advancing a negotiated peace between Israelis and Palestinians,” he added.