Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was at the White House giving President Barack Obama a report on efforts to relaunch Middle East peace talks this afternoon.
But despite near constant diplomatic effort underway in recent months, and some progress achieved, success in getting peace talks even relaunche still eludes the Obama administration, a White House readout of Clinton's oral briefing suggests.
"The Secretary advised the President that challenges remain as the United States continues to work with both sides to relaunch negotiations in an atmosphere in which they can succeed," a White House read out on Clinton's briefing said. "They also discussed the progress that has been made on a number of issues and the path ahead."
"The Palestinians have strengthened their efforts on security and reforming Palestinian institutions, but they need to do more in these areas and on stopping incitement and preventing terror," the statement continued. "Israelis have facilitated greater movement for Palestinians and responded to our call to stop all settlement activity by expressing a willingness to curtail settlement activity, but they need to translate that willingness into real, meaningful action and do more to improve the daily lives of Palestinians. And both sides need to move forward toward direct negotiations."
Obama had requested the progress report at a trilateral meeting with the Israeli and Palestinian leaders in New York last month.
Administration officials have suggested this week they thought they would achieve an agreement on relaunching peace talks by the end of the year.
"Would we like to have reached the point to launch negotiations? Of course," an official said. "Are we satisfied? No. Do we still think it’s possible in a relatively short period of time to get that admittedly preliminary step accomplishd? Yes we do, that's what we're engaged in."
The process of late has been frustrated by Palestinian Authority President's Mahmoud Abbas' domestic political problems, diplomats said. Abbas' most recent spate of political problems were triggered by his initial decision last month to decline to push for UN investigation of the Goldstone Gaza commission report -- a decision he later reversed. Abbas' political problems have made him resistant to agree to go into permanent status talks with Israel without a total settlement freeze, diplomats said.
Washington has achieved an understanding with Israel on a settlement moratorium, U.S. officials said. But while far reaching, it is not a total settlement freeze that Abbas has demanded as a precondition for going into talks.
"Even under the best of circumstances this would be tough," says veteran US Middle East peace negotiator Aaron David Miller. "Those Israelis who don't want to move ahead, have a ready made excuse. Between Goldstone, Obama, Abbas' weakness, and Hamas, dealing with the peace process isn't a terribly attractive propostion from this Israeli government's perspective."
The Obama administration "is determined and confident and they think that time is on their side and that the parties can only stonewall for so long," said the American Task Force for Palestine's Hussein Ibish. "I think they think that this is a marathon and not a sprint."
Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell will return to the region soon to continue talks, the White House said. Clinton will also consult with Arab foreign ministers at a conference in Morocco she's due to attend November 2nd and 3rd.
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