Rice leads call to scale down U.S. role in Mideast
Administration frustrated with stance of both Israel and Palestinians, but privately mostly blames Israel.
Haaretz By Barak Ravid | Apr. 6, 2014
▻http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/.premium-1.583964
The United States is preparing for a possible reduction of its involvement in the Israel-Palestinian peace process. President Barack Obama is expected to meet as early as tomorrow with Secretary of State John Kerry to begin a “reevaluation” of the extent of U.S. involvement. However, U.S. Mideast peace envoy Martin Indyk is to hold a three-way meeting today with the Israeli and Palestinian negotiating teams in an attempt to salvage the talks.
Senior U.S. administration officials say there’s a great deal of frustration at the White House over the point the talks have reached, which Kerry has led for the past 15 months. Obama and his advisers are not said to be blaming Kerry; on the contrary, they are backing him. The New York Times reported yesterday that Obama said in a meeting with his national security adviser Friday that he has “nothing but admiration for the way John has handled this.”
Publicly, the Americans are pointing a finger at both sides, but in private the messages are different. Although the White House is angry at the Palestinians for going to the United Nations, most of its ire is directed at the Israeli government, to which it ascribes most responsibility for the crisis.