WASHINGTON (JTA) — The description of a possible U.S.-drafted framework for Israeli-Palestinian peace that Martin Indyk, the top U.S. Middle East envoy, delivered to a group of Jewish leaders was not final, the State Department said.
“During an off the record briefing with Jewish leaders, Ambassador Indyk reiterated the well-known United States position in support of 1967 borders plus swaps as a part of a broad discussion on ideas being discussed for a framework,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday, a day after the call.
“But given this is an ongoing process and these decisions have not yet been made, at no point did Ambassador Indyk make a prediction of the final contents of a framework,” Psaki said.
Indyk, in a call first reported by JTA, described detailed security arrangements on the Jordan-West Bank border, a settlement of the refugee question, the terms for mutual recognition of Israel as the nation state of the Jews and Palestine as the nation state of the Palestinians, and land swaps.
State Department officials said that there is not an expectation that the framework would be completed in “weeks,” although Indyk had said it was his hope that it would.
Regarding Indyk’s reference during the call to the expectation that land swaps would allow 75-80 percent of settlers to stay in Israel, the officials said that arose not from the current talks but from previous estimates during the 20-year long peace process.
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