US President Barack Obama believes that there is a less than 50 percent chance that his administration's efforts to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict will end in success.Obama made the remark in a long interview with the New Yorker magazine that was released on Sunday.Obama told the New Yorker's editor David Remnick that the odds of reaching final treaties in US efforts on the Israeli-Palestinian front, the Iranian nuclear program, and in the Syrian war were less than fifty-fifty.
Despite his assessment Obama said there was value in making some progress in these three Middle Eastern initiatives. “In all three circumstances we may be able to push the boulder partway up the hill and maybe stabilize it so it doesn’t roll back on us," he said.The US president added that he thought the regional problems in the Middle East were connected and that the "old order" in the region was no longer tenable.
Israeli’s top two negotiators with the Palestinians were scheduled to leave Sunday night for Washington and continued talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry about the document he is expected to present in the near future to form the basis of continued negotiations with the Palestinians.
The Israelis and the Palestinians returned to the negotiating table last July after a three year hiatus from direct talks.