Description
Added on the 28/12/2016 18:29:26 - Copyright : Euronews EN
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged Israel and the Palestinians to ease tensions following a spike in violence that has put the region on edge. The bloodshed has alarmed the Biden administration as it attempts to find common ground with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's new right-wing government and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas. For more on the latest flare-up in violence between Israelis and Palestinians, France 24 is joined by Scott Lucas, Professor of American Studies and International Politics at the University College Dublin Clinton Institute.
A nine-month deadline for Israelis and Palestinians to keep talking in order to reach a peace deal could be a recipe for disaster, says noted Middle East analyst Aaron David Miller. But the man who has advised six US Secretaries of State tells Annette Young that John Kerry could in fact be the man to defy all odds.
FRANCE 24 spoke to the Prime Minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Mohammad Shtayyeh in Brussels where he unreservedly criticised the new Israeli government, claiming its goal is "annexation", and added that "the whole settlement programme was designed to destroy the two-state solution". The prime minister also expressed "big disappointment" with Joe Biden's administration, recalling how he was "very hopeful" when Biden was elected, but now believes that the promises made by Washington will never materialise.
UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the fresh wave of violence "perpetuates the cycles of death, destruction and despair... Fighting must stop. It must stop immediately."