Former envoy claims US may deal with French proposal on Palestine after September

A former US envoy to the Palestine-Israel peace process has claimed that the administration in Washington may deal with the draft resolution prepared by France on the establishment of an independent state of Palestine after September this year. According to Israel’s Walla news site, Martin Indyk said that the US administration is currently busy in negotiations with Iran over its nuclear programme and does not have the desire to enter into confrontation with Israel.

Indyk, who now serves as vice president and director for foreign policy at the Brookings Institution in Washington DC, pointed out that there is no possibility at the moment of resuming peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians. He called on the French government to wait until the end of summer to advance its proposal before the UN Security Council.

“The French will not submit the draft resolution to the UN Security Council while the US threatens to veto it,” said Indyk. “They are aware that if they do so before September that is what is going to happen.”

Commenting on the US position regarding the French resolution, Indyk said that there is a good possibility that it will deal with it without having to use the veto. “If the US administration sees that the French draft resolution is imbalanced, it will submit another draft resolution that will include things that may not be favoured by both parties.”

The former diplomat pointed out that the potential proposal will include a reference to the establishment of a Palestinian state within the borders of 1967 with land swaps, but will also recognise Israel as a “state for the Jewish people”. However, he added his belief that both Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu lack popular support to engage in serious negotiations.

“Netanyahu formed a narrow right-wing government,” he explained, “and Abu Mazen [Abbas], who has not gone to the polls since 2005, lacks a mandate from the Palestinians to make the necessary concessions to reach an agreement, so he is paralysed. The circumstances surrounding both parties make the possibility of reaching a peace agreement a very complicated thing.”