WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo declined on Wednesday to publicly say the Trump administration still backs a two-state solution to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians.
“We are now working with many parties to share what our vision (is) as to how to solve this problem,” Pompeo told a US Senate hearing where he was pressed for a response on the issue.
Earlier, Donald Trump said Benjamin Netanyahu's election victory had improved the chances of peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
Pompeo said the administration “has been working on a set of ideas” for Middle East peace “that we hope to present before too long,” adding that he hoped they would provide a basis for discussions on resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Democratic Senator Tim Kaine asked Pompeo, a former Republican member of the House of Representatives, if he thought a peace agreement including one state for Israel and one state for the Palestinians was an outdated idea.
“It’s certainly an idea that’s been around a long time, senator,” Pompeo responded.
“Ultimately the individuals in the region will sort this out,” the secretary of state said.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu secured re-election on Wednesday, and a record fifth term in office, with religious-rightist parties set to hand him a parliamentary majority, despite a close contest against his main centrist challenger, a vote tally showed.
In a rare turn during the campaign toward the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Netanyahu alarmed Palestinians by pledging to annex Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank if re-elected. Palestinians seek a state there and in the Gaza Strip, with East Jerusalem as its capital.
That came after Trump signed a proclamation during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington on March 25, officially granting US recognition of the Golan Heights as Israeli territory, a dramatic departure from decades of American policy.
The move, which Trump announced in a tweet days prior, was widely seen as an attempt to boost Netanyahu as he ran for re-election on April 9.
Israel captured the Golan in the 1967 Middle East war and annexed it in 1981 in a move not recognized internationally.
The Trump administration has been promising for many months that it would roll out a Middle East peace plan after Israel’s election.
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Pompeo says Israeli-Palestinian peace plan to be presented ‘before too long’
Pompeo says Israeli-Palestinian peace plan to be presented ‘before too long’
- US Secretary of State declines to say the Trump administration still backs a two-state solution
- Donald Trump said Benjamin Netanyahu's election victory had improved the chances of peace
Related
Sudan army breaks siege on key southern city Kadugli: army sources
KHARTOUM: Sudanese army forces broke Tuesday a paramilitary siege on the South Kordofan state capital Kadugli, two army sources told AFP.
“Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege,” one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.
The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.
The allies had also besieged the neighboring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.
“After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them,” another army source told AFP.
Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.
In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war’s fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
“Our forces have entered Kadugli and lifted the siege,” one said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.
Kadugli, where the United Nations confirmed a famine last year, has been besieged for much of the nearly three-year war between the army and the Rapid Support Forces, which broke out in April 2023.
The siege has seen the city surrounded by RSF fighters and their local allies, a faction of the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North led by Abdelaziz El-Hilu.
The allies had also besieged the neighboring town of Dilling, which the UN has said suffered similar famine conditions, before army troops broke through in late January.
“After fierce battles on the road between Dilling and Kadugli, our forces defeated the RSF and their supporting Hilu militia, inflicting heavy losses upon them,” another army source told AFP.
Since it broke out, the war has killed tens of thousands and left 11 million people displaced.
In the southern Kordofan region, currently the war’s fiercest front line, hundreds of thousands are facing starvation in the world’s largest hunger and displacement crisis.
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