WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry is all set to offer a "comprehensive vision" of how to revive the Israel-Palestinian peace process in a major speech on Wednesday.
According to The Guardian, The US secretary of state will outline the proposals today, at a time when US-Israeli relations have reached their lowest point in decades. The government of the Israeli Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, has accused Washington of conspiring against it when a UN Security Council vote on Friday demanded an end to settlement building in the West Bank.
State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Kerry believes "it is his duty in his remaining weeks and days as secretary of state to lay out what he believes is a way towards a two-state solution."
"It's always important to keep the process moving forward," Toner said. "We haven't given up on this and we don't think the Israelis and Palestinians should do either."
Officials said Kerry would make the speech to an invited audience, including the Washington diplomatic corps, at the State Department.
Israel responded furiously to the UN Security Council resolution passed on Friday that demanded an end to settlement building, threatening diplomatic reprisals against the countries that voted in favour.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government and many of Israel's supporters in Washington reacted with fury and accused Obama of working behind the scenes to betray them.
Netanyahu has vowed to resist a peace framework imposed on his government, and observers warn that a threatened Israeli backlash in the form of thousands of new settler homes in east Jerusalem, combined with Trumps plan to move the US embassy to the disputed city, could trigger a fresh wave of violence.
US President-elect Donald Trump, who takes office on January 20, has signaled he will take a softer line on Israeli settlement building by promising to move the US embassy to Jerusalem.
US officials said they plan to keep pushing both Israel and the Palestinian leadership to take concrete steps to revive talks on a two-state solution to the conflict.
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