BICOM

Senator John Kerry, nominated as the next US Secretary of State yesterday emphasised his hopes that peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians will be renewed.

Speaking yesterday at the Senate confirmation hearing, which is widely regarded as a formality ahead of approval for his nomination, Kerry said “My prayer is that perhaps this can be a moment where we can renew some kind of effort to get the parties [Israel and the Palestinians] into a discussion, to have a different track than we’ve been on over the course of the last couple of years.”

He went on to describe  how “So much of what we need to aspire to achieve and what we need globally … all of this is tied to what can and doesn’t happen with respect to Israel/Palestine,” which he said is “an incredibly important issue.” Kerry then warned that the consequences of allowing the window to a two-state solution to shut would be “disastrous.”

While he refused to go into detail over how he believes an agreement can be reached, saying “I don’t want to prejudice it with public demands to any party at this point in time,” Kerry reaffirmed “I will never step back from my commitment to the State of Israel [or] from the plight of Palestinians.”

However, Kerry did warn the Palestinians “If there were any effort to take Israel, for instance, to the ICC [International Criminal Court]… that’s the kind of unilateral action we would feel very, very strongly against and see it as completely counterproductive.” The Palestinians became eligible to join the ICC after the United Nations General Assembly upgraded their status in November from “observer entity” to “non-member state.”