Kerry seeks model for Mideast peace talks

US Secretary of State John Kerry launched a second day of talks with Israelis and Palestinians on Friday, seeking to hammer out a framework to guide negotiations toward a peace deal.

US officials have privately said they believe the direct talks, resumed in July after a three-year hiatus, have reached a new phase as an April deadline for an accord looms, but are struggling to overcome fierce opposition from both sides to any compromises.

Kerry returned to Israel on Thursday for his 10th trip as secretary of state and went straight into five hours of meetings with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The two men were to meet again around noon on Friday, after Kerry and his team first met for breakfast talks at his Jerusalem hotel with Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman.

The top US diplomat was scheduled later to head to Ramallah for discussions with Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas at his headquarters in West Bank.

But Netanyahu on Thursday was downbeat on the progress of talks, launching a scathing attack on Abbas and casting doubt on whether he and the Palestinians were genuine in their desire for peace.

"I know that you're committed to peace, I know that I'm committed to peace. But unfortunately given the actions and words of Palestinian leaders, there's growing doubt in Israel that the Palestinians are committed to peace," Netanyahu told a grim-faced Kerry.

Referring to Israel's release of long-serving Palestinian prisoners as part of the talks, the Israeli leader said Abbas had "embraced terrorists as heroes. To glorify the murderers of innocent women and men as heroes is an outrage.

"He can't stand against terrorists, and stand with the terrorists."

But Kerry vowed the United States was committed to working with both sides "to narrow the differences on a framework that will provide the agreed guidelines for permanent status negotiations".

"This will take time and it will take compromise from both sides. But an agreed framework would be a significant breakthrough."

The framework would set out the agreements and disagreements on the core issues dividing the two sides, including the contours of a future Palestinian state, refugees, the fate of Jerusalem, security, "mutual recognition and the end of conflict and of all claims", Kerry said.

"It would address all of the core issues. It would create the fixed, defined parameters by which the parties would then know where they are going and what the end result can be," he added.

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 01/04/2014 page8)