ROME, June 26 (UPI) — U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry will meet with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu but is not expected to restart peace talks between Israel and Palestine.
U.S. officials speaking ahead of the Sunday meeting said they don’t expect a breakthrough, International Business Times reported.
Also, as a result of the Brexit vote last week, in which Britain voted to exit the European Union, Kerry has added stops on his trip to London and Brussels, Kerry confirmed on the U.S. Department of State Twitter page. “I will travel to Brussels and London on Monday to reaffirm our unwavering partnership w/ the EU & UK,” Kerry tweeted.
“The secretary plans to discuss a range of regional issues with the prime minister at their meeting in Rome, which includes the fight against Daesh, recent developments in Syria,” U.S. State Department spokesman John Kirby said during a press briefing late last week. Daesh is also known as the Islamic State, ISIS and ISIL.
“He will not be trying to restart peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians or offering any new initiatives,”Kirby said. “Obviously, as a part of this broader discussion that the Secretary will be having with the prime minister, they’ll talk about where things stand with respect to movement to or away from a two-state solution. But … he’s not going to restart talks.”
Israel-Palestinian peace talks collapsed in 2014. Israel’s illegal settlement activity and Tel Aviv’s refusal to release certain senior Palestinian prisoners led to the failure then, PressTV reported.
