U.S. Vice President Mike Pence said on Tuesday the timing of a long-awaited U.S. Middle East peace initiative depended on the return of Palestinians to negotiations.
President Donald Trump s advisers have been working on the outlines of a plan for some time. But Palestinians ruled out Washington as a peace broker after the U.S. president s Dec. 6 recognition of Jerusalem as Israel s capital.
“The White House has been working with our partners in the region to see if we can develop a framework for peace,” Pence told Reuters in an interview in Jerusalem on the last leg of a three-day Middle East trip. “It all just depends now on when the Palestinians are going to come back to the table.”
Trump s Jerusalem move angered the Palestinians, sparked protests in the Middle East and raised concern among Western countries that it could further destabilize the region. Palestinians see East Jerusalem as capital of a future state.
A White House official told reporters he hoped the plan would be announced in 2018.
“It ll come out both when it s ready and when both sides are actually willing to engage on it,” said the White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity.
The official acknowledged that the United States and the Palestinian leadership had not had any direct diplomatic contact since Trump s Jerusalem declaration.
Pence said in the interview that he and the president believed the decision, under which the United States also plans to move its embassy to Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, would improve peacemaking prospects.
