AMMAN: US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo suggested on Monday he was open to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian dispute, saying a “two-party solution” was likely in his first extensive comments on peace efforts since taking the job last week.
“With respect to the two-state solution, the parties will ultimately make the decision. We are certainly open to a two-party solution as a likely outcome,” he said at a news conference in Jordan after a visit to Israel.
“The Israelis and Palestinians need to have political engagement. We urge the Palestinians to return to that political dialogue,” he added.
US President Donald Trump has said he would support a two-state solution, if the two sides agree, although he has stopped sort of re-asserting a US commitment to eventual Palestinian statehood, a longtime bedrock of US policy. The White House is preparing a new Israeli-Palestinian peace plan.
Some 70 years after the creation of Israel, prospects for a Palestinian state appear dim. Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were based on the 1993 Oslo accords that envisaged a two-state solution.
Those talks have been stalled for years and Israel has built more settlements in the occupied territories, which it seized during the 1967 Arab-Israeli war.
Israel has refused any right of return for Palestinians who were expelled or fled and became refugees after the country declared independence in 1948, fearing it would lose its Jewish majority.
Israeli forces have killed dozens of Palestinians in recent weeks who were protesting in the Gaza Strip near the border with Israel to demand the return of refugees and their descendents. Israel says it is protecting its borders. — Reuters
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