Top Obama administration officials here in New York
are working hard with Quartet members, including Russia, to come up with
language for
a new statement on the Middle East Peace Process, one
that would be viable no matter what happens with the Palestinian drive to seek
member-state status at the U.N. this week.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Monday evening on the
sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly and the Palestinian U.N. gambit was a
major part of their conversation. Following the meeting, State Department
officials said that Clinton was focused on the longer-term diplomatic picture.
"Both Foreign Minister Lavrov and Secretary Clinton
agreed that the Quartet envoys should continue working to find a way forward
among the Quartet in the form of a statement that can help establish a pathway
back to negotiations over time," a senior State Department official told
reporters in a read out of the meeting.
But when pressed, the official could not note any
progress or agreement between the U.S. and Russia on the contents of the
statement. The official said, however, that the meeting was only the first of
what will be several U.S.-Russian interactions on this issue this week.
"They talked about what the purpose or nature of a Quartet statement and
product would look like and the desire by both of them to have the Quartet play
a constructive role in producing a pathway that could lead back towards
negotiations," the official said. "And they also talked about what some of the
elements might look like in a statement that could provide a useful framework
or context for negotiations between the two sides. And then they agreed that
the envoys should continue working."
The Cable reported
last week that among the issues under consideration within the discussions
over a Quartet statement were two specific items: modified language to
acknowledge the Jewish identity of the State of Israel and a U.S.-proposed
timeline for resuming direct negotiations within four to six weeks.
But Clinton and Lavrov didn't get to that level of details on Monday evening.
"Their conversation tonight was at more of a strategic level than at a level of
text," the official said, adding that Clinton affirmed the U.S. position
opposing the Palestinians move at the U.N., a move the Russian government is
publicly supporting.
The official's briefing seemed to signal that the Obama administration has
somewhat resigned itself to the fact that the Palestinians plan to move forward
at the U.N. this week and that the administration is now looking over the
horizon to minimize the damage to the peace process and focus on what happens
after all parties leave New York.
"And so the question is: How do you deal with all the elements that are at
play in the discussions here in New York in a way that can produce a pathway
when people leave New York back to negotiations and then have those
negotiations ultimately yield the two-state solution that everybody wants," the
official said.
The reporters at the briefing
repeatedly noted the administration change of emphasis away from criticizing
the Palestinian U.N. activity and toward a diplomatic path that would begin
after the General Assembly ends.
The official acknowledged that in Clinton's meeting with Lavrov, she didn't
spend a lot of time trying to convince the Russians not to support the
Palestinian statehood bid.
"I think she laid out her position on why she believes that action at the
United Nations is not the best way forward, and she spent the bulk of her time
encouraging the foreign minister to work with her on finding a way forward that
would get the two parties back into negotiations."
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