Israeli-Palestinian Talks Set Nine-Month Goal

Israeli and Palestinian negotiators have set a nine-month goal for reaching a so-far elusive peace deal.

Barack Obama and Joe Biden met with the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators

US Secretary of State John Kerry said the sides agreed to meet again within two weeks to continue negotiations on reaching a pact.

Speaking as the two sides wrapped up an initial round of talks on Tuesday, Mr Kerry said they were committed to "sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues" that divided them.

Mr Kerry opposite Tzipi Livni and her Palestinian counterpart Saeb Erekat

He said the next round of negotiations would take place in either Israel or the Palestinian territories.

"The parties have agreed here today that all of the final status issues, all of the core issues and all other issues are all on the table for negotiation," Mr Kerry said.

"And they are on the table with one simple goal - a view to ending the conflict. Our objective will be to achieve a final status agreement over the course of the next nine months."

Shuafat refugee camp is seen behind the Israeli barrier in the West Bank

Earlier, President Barack Obama invited the negotiators to the White House to give a boost to his administration's third bid to relaunch the stalled Middle East peace talks.

Mr Kerry said he was aware of the deep scepticism surrounding the new push for peace and acknowledged the road ahead would be difficult.

However, he said he was hopeful an agreement could be reached.

Refugee camps are a key area of contention - this one is in the Gaza Strip

"While I understand the scepticism, I don't share it. And I don't think we have time for it," he said.

Mr Kerry said the negotiations, to be mediated on a day-to-day basis by his new Middle East peace envoy Martin Indyk, would be cloaked in secrecy and the parties had agreed he would be the only person to comment on them.

Israel and the Palestinians remain deeply divided over so-called "final status issues" - such as the fate of Jerusalem, claimed by both as a capital, the right of return for Palestinian refugees and the borders of a future Palestinian state complicated by dozens of Jewish settlements scattered across the occupied West Bank.

At the State Department ceremony, Mr Kerry was flanked Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat, who each spoke briefly about the need to resolve the long-standing conflict.

"It's time for the Palestinian people to have an independent sovereign state of their own," said Mr Erekat, who spoke first.

"It's time for the Palestinians to live in peace, freedom and dignity within their own independent, sovereign state."

Ms Livni allowed that she and Mr Erekat had been involved in failed negotiations before, notably the Annapolis Process that former president George W Bush initiated in 2008, but she said this time could be different.

"You know, Saeb," she said to Mr Erekat, "we all spent some time in the negotiations room ... but we didn't complete our mission.

"And this is something that we need to do now, in these negotiations that we will launch today. And the opportunity has been created for us, for all of us, and we cannot afford to waste it.

"I believe that history is not made by cynics; it is made by realists who are not afraid to dream. Let us be these people."

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