US said pushing Israel to transfer parts of West Bank to PA administrative rule
Economic incentives insufficient; Americans reportedly want Netanyahu to do more to revive peace talks; PMO denies TV report
A
red sign on the side of a road warns Israeli citizens from entering the
West Bank city of Nablus on July 29, 2015.
The administration of US
President Donald Trump is said to be pressing Israel to transfer parts
of the West Bank to Palestinian administrative control as a goodwill
gesture to help revive peace talks between the two sides.
Despite a series of economic incentives approved on Sunday
by the Israeli cabinet, the US wants to see greater concessions to the
Palestinian Authority and views the recent measures as insufficient,
Channel 10 reported Wednesday.
Specifically they have asked for areas in the
northern West Bank to be transferred from Area C to Area B, according to
the report.
Under the Oslo Accords, Area C of the West
Bank (60%, where most of the settlements are located, and some 150,000
Palestinians live) is under full Israeli administrative and military
control, while in Area B (22%), administrative control is the
responsibility of the PA while the IDF is in charge of security. Area A
(18%, encompassing the major Palestinian cities) is under the full
administrative and military control of the Palestinian Authority.
The Prime Minister’s Office later denied the Channel 10 report.
President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
It was not immediately clear when the US supposedly made these demands, but US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson told reporters on Wednesday
aboard Air Force One that Trump “pressured” both Netanyahu and PA
President Mahmoud Abbas during his meeting with the two leaders this
week to return to the negotiating table.
It was also not known what concessions the US
sought from the Palestinians during Trump’s trip to help restart the
peace process.
During his visit to Israel and the West Bank
on Monday-Tuesday, Trump repeatedly emphasized his desire to help broker
a peace agreement between Israelis and Palestinians, but offered little
in how he would encourage the two sides to revive peace talks.
Trump has repeatedly said he was looking to
broker the “ultimate deal” with Israelis and Palestinians and is
convinced he could do so. Trump has tasked his son-in-law Jared Kushner,
and former real estate lawyer Jason Greenblatt with charting a course
forward. Still, White House officials had downplayed the prospects for a
breakthrough on this trip, saying it was important to manage their
ambitions as they wade into terrain that has tripped up more experienced
diplomats.
US President Donald Trump delivers a speech at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem on May 23, 2017. (AFP Photo/Menahem Kahana)
In a speech Tuesday at the Israel Museum, the
president heaped praise on Israel, while calling on both sides to make
compromises toward peace. He urged them to put aside the “pain and
disagreements of the past” and declared that both sides were ready to
move forward.
The president notably avoided all of the
thorny issues that have stymied peace efforts for decades. He did not
mention Israeli settlements, the status of Jerusalem or even whether the
US would continue to insist on a two-state solution giving the
Palestinians sovereign territory.
In a meeting with opposition leader Isaac
Herzog on Tuesday, Kushner said Washington intended to move fast to
advance a renewal of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians, a
spokesman for Herzog said, with Trump’s envoy Jason Greenblatt
reportedly set to return next week so as not to leave a “diplomatic
vacuum.”
In a separate report Wednesday, Channel 10
said that Israel’s National Security Council is currently considering a
plan to transfer control of two East Jerusalem neighborhoods from the
Jerusalem Municipality to a yet-to-be established local council.