Washington sends David Hale and Dennis Ross in last ditch effort to restart peace talks before Palestinians bring statehood bid to UN.
By REUTERSHale and Abbas 311(photo credit: REUTERS)
WASHINGTON - US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Tuesday that the path to a two-state solution creating a Palestinian state beside Israel runs through Jerusalem and Ramallah, not through New York.Speaking at a news conference, Clinton repeated the US view that the Palestinians should not seek full membership in the United Nations later this month and instead should resume direct talks with the Israelis. She said she is sending two US envoys, David Hale and Dennis Ross, to Israel and the Palestinian territories to try to find a way to revive talks.RELATED:US officially asks PA to abandon UN recognition planPLO official: US obsessed with preventing UN state bidThe two senior US envoys will return to the Middle East this week. Hale, the US Mideast peace envoy and Ross, a senior White House official, will head back for more talks one week after an initial set of meetings with Israeli and Palestinian leaders appeared to make little headway.The stepped-up US activity comes as US President Barack Obama's administration scrambles to head off the Palestinian Authority's plan to seek full membership during the UN General Assembly session that begins on Sept. 19, despite US and Israeli objections."Our view remains that neither course, neither the Security Council nor the General Assembly, is going to lead to the result that they seek, which is to have a stable, secure state living in peace, that they have to do this through negotiations," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said on Monday.
