BICOM

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on Wednesday that the US plan for Israeli-Palestinian talks will be “grounded in the facts on the ground and a realistic assessment of what would get us a good outcome”.

Speaking to the House Appropriations Committee’s Subcommittee about his department’s 2020 budget request, Pompeo said the plan would break with conventional thinking on final-status issues: “Those are the parameters that were largely at hand in the discussions before and they led us where we are today – no resolution.”

Instead, Pompeo said the US wanted to “broaden the debate” when asked if a peace deal would focus as in the past on establishing borders, mutual recognition and the status of Jerusalem, settlements and Palestinian refugees. He added: “What was tried before failed, and I’m optimistic that what we’re doing will give us a better likelihood that we’ll achieve the outcomes that would be better for both the people of Israel and the Palestinian people as well.”

Pompeo demurred when the committee’s Democratic chairwoman, Nita Lowey, asked him if the Trump administration stood by the international community’s position in support of a two-state solution.

US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman told the AIPAC Conference on Tuesday that the Trump administration understood that Israel faced an “existential threat” if Israel gave up security control of the West Bank. “Can we leave this to an administration that may not understand that in the Middle East, peace comes through strength, not just through words on a paper?” he asked.

The US team working on the plan is expected to present it after Israel’s 9 April election, although the Palestinian Authority (PA) has rejected US mediation since President Donald Trump’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital last December. Representative David Price questioned the US approach, asking Pompeo: “This is the path forward, you’re confident, to totally marginalise and alienate the Palestinian side?”