The Obama administration has quietly now retracted itself from the complicated two-state solution between Israel and Palestine, the White House has indirectly indicated that it will resort to a damage control status during the remainder of this term.
US Presiden,t Barack Obama is now almost into the last year of his second term and the aggravating terms of negotiations between the Israeli and Palestinian governments is reaching no end and the proposed two-state solution is quite out of the question. Given the current circumstances, the administration is now resigning itself to damage control, the White House Middle East coordinator Rob Malley said in a conference call.
“This is really the first time since the first term of the Clinton administration where we have an administration that faces a reality where the prospect of a negotiated two-state solution is not in the cards for the remainder — in the time that’s remaining,” he said.
“The president has reached that conclusion — that right now, barring a major shift, the parties are not going to be in the position to negotiate a final status agreement,” Malley added.
The decisions have been made in the light of the declining state of the Israeli-Palestinian relations. However, the US President has not made an official announcement on what his stance on the overall situation is. That may be because he still has hopes that the two parties will sit together and work out a peace accord even if they do not reach a two-state solution as proposed.
France has already presented a perimeter for peace talks through the United Nations Security Council for both Israelis and Palestinians as to how the two can outline and find a common ground for negotiations.
On the other hand, the Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who is visiting the White House to meet President Obama, ran his re-election campaign on the slogan that the Palestinian state will not be allowed at any cost. Still Obama thinks there is light at the end of the tunnel.
The conference call was arranged to apprise the media about the upcoming Netanyahu visit to the White House. White House Media Secretary, Josh Earnest said that the Israeli Prime Minister’s comments have forced Obama Administration to re-think its methodology toward the two-state solution and that there has been little to no change in the Israeli premier’s stance.
Obama Administration is regressing to a damage control policy because it does not want the issue to aggravate and keep a room for the possibility of the aforesaid solution even if it is not possible in the next twelve months or so.
“We’ve tried many different approaches over the course of the administration,” said Ben Rhodes, deputy national security adviser for strategic communication, during Thursday’s call. “Direct negotiations, indirect negotiations, the U.S. putting out some principles. And again, at each juncture, ultimately the parties themselves did not take the sufficient steps forward to reach a negotiated two-state solution.”
In the meantime, the US government has asked both parties to refrain from violent measures. The Israeli government Tuesday raided a Palestinian radio station and confiscated the broadcasting equipment it said was being used to incite violence against the Israelis.
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