Clinton pushes to revive stalled Middle East peace talks

Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, in back-to-back meetings with Jordanian and Egyptian diplomats, sought Friday to reinvigorate the Obama administration's push for Middle East peace by laying out the negotiating framework and starting point for talks between Israelis and Palestinians.

In what amounted to a public road test of key phrases and terms arduously discussed behind the scenes with the two sides, Clinton told reporters in Washington that the United States would seek "an outcome which ends the conflict and reconciles" two competing visions: "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 that reflect subsequent developments and meet Israeli security requirements."

Many of these terms are heavy with diplomatic nuance -- "subsequent developments" refers to Jewish settlements in Palestinian territories -- but they are intended to help build a diplomatic artifice that would allow stalled negotiations to begin anew. The administration pushed hard for a breakthrough in its first year but instead stirred Palestinian and Arab anger when it failed to achieve its goal of a complete settlement freeze.

The Israeli government instituted in November a 10-month moratorium on settlement building, with caveats that included no restrictions on growth in East Jerusalem, where Palestinians hope to have their capital. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has held out for a complete freeze before talks start.

Clinton, in her remarks, also tried to stake out bridging language on Jerusalem, which the Israelis think should be considered Israel's "undivided" capital. "We believe that it is possible to realize the aspirations of both Israelis and Palestinians for Jerusalem, and safeguard its status as a symbol of the three great religions for all people," she said at a news conference with Jordanian Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh.

Jordanian and Egyptian officials -- who are critical to peace talks because they represent the only Arab neighbors that have made peace with Israel -- have pressed for the talks to begin by trying to set a border between Israel and the nascent Palestinian state. Israeli and Palestinian officials have been more skeptical, with Israeli officials saying security concerns should take precedence in any discussion of borders.

"There has to be a negotiation on all of the final-status issues," which include not only borders but also Jerusalem, refugees and water rights, Clinton said. But she added that she agreed with Judeh that "resolving borders resolves settlements. Resolving Jerusalem resolves settlements. So I think we need to lift our sights. And instead of looking down at the trees, we need to look at the forest."

A senior Arab official, who spoke on the condition that he not be named, said that discussing the border first would allow the two sides to sidestep the question of whether Israel should first freeze all settlement growth. "We are at an impasse and what is needed right now is to bypass this impasse," he said. "You front-load borders in order to overcome this current obstacle over settlements."

The official acknowledged that diplomats had not yet found a way to convince Abbas to abandon his insistence on a full settlement freeze but added: "He has our full backing to resume negotiations."

Clinton also held talks with Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit and intelligence chief Omar Suleiman, a key figure in reconciliation talks between Abbas's Fatah movement and the Hamas militant group that controls the Gaza Strip.

"We are coming to try to regenerate enough energy and to create enough momentum for a peace effort, and it is crucial that we would win," Aboul Gheit told reporters.

George Mitchell, the administration's special envoy for Middle East peace, will visit Paris and Brussels next week and then Israel and the Palestinian territories later this month in an effort to launch the talks. He said this week that the administration expected the talks would be completed within two years.