The State Department said an agreement was “very, very close”
but that details were still being worked out.
Speaking privately administration officials familiar with
the matter said an announcement could come as early as Friday or Saturday.
Those officials spoke on condition of anonymity due to the delicacy of the
ongoing diplomacy.
“We think we are very, very close to a decision by the
parties to enter into direct negotiations,” State Department spokesman P.J.
Crowley told reporters. “We think we’re well positioned to get there.” To that
end, he said Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton had called Palestinian
Prime Minister Salam Fayyad late Wednesday and spoken Thursday with Jordanian
Foreign Minister Nasser Judeh and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the
special representative of the “Quartet” of Mideast peacemakers — the US, the UN,
the European Union and Russia.
Officials said tentative plans call for Israel, the
Palestinians, the Quartet and the US to release separate but near simultaneous
statements saying the stalled talks will resume early next month in either the US
or Egypt.
The US statement is expected to be issued in Clinton’s name.
Crowley declined to comment on the arrangements but said
that “if we reach the point we hope to arrive at ... we will demonstrate our
support for the process and we will outline specifics of where we go from here.”
In the region, Israeli and Palestinian officials refused to comment. They said
they would react after an official announcement is made about the talks, and
added that they did not have advance information about the content.
