02/09/2013 10:12
U.S. says its envoy took part in Israeli-Palestinian meeting
The U.S. State Department said on Sunday for the first time that the U.S. envoy for Israeli-Palestinian peace had taken part in a meeting between the two parties since negotiations resumed in late July, but declined to say when or whether any progress was made, Reuters reported.
"Israeli and Palestinian delegations have been meeting continuously since final status negotiations resumed on July 29," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a brief written statement.
"The negotiations have been serious, and U.S. Special Envoy Martin Indyk and his team have been fully briefed on the bilateral talks and also participated in a bilateral negotiating session," she added. "As we have said in the past, we are not planning to read out the details of these meetings."
It was not clear why the State Department decided to make the disclosure.
Despite deep skepticism among analysts and diplomats, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry this summer succeeded in persuading the two sides to resume peace negotiations that had collapsed in 2010.
Since their resumption, the State Department has said little about their course, and much of the Obama administration national security team's attention has been focused on the Egyptian military's crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and on the Syrian government's alleged use of chemical weapons against its own people.
Israeli-Palestinian peace has become Kerry's signature issue even as the United States is grappling with the unrest in Egypt and the civil war in Syria.