Kerry to Lay Out Vision for Ending «Israeli»-Palestinian Conflict

Local Editor

US Secretary of State John Kerry will lay out his vision for ending the "Israeli"-Palestinian conflict in a speech just days after the US cleared the way for a United Nations [UN] resolution demanding an end to illegal "Israeli" settlements.

The speech, less than a month before President Barack Obama leaves office, is expected to be the administration's last word on a decades-old dispute that Kerry had hoped to resolve during his four years as America's top diplomat.

It could also be seen in the "Israeli" entity as another parting shot at "Israeli" Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who had had an especially acrimonious relationship with Obama since they both took office in 2009.

The US broke with a longstanding approach of diplomatically shielding the entity and abstained on a UN Security Council resolution that passed with 14 countries in favor and none against.

Kerry will discuss the abstention when he speaks at the State Department on Wednesday, a senior State Department official told reporters.

"We believe that with the two-state solution in peril, it is important to share the deeper understanding we have developed of both sides' bottom lines during intensive consultations in recent years," the official said.

The speech will also address what the official called "misleading" accusations by "Israeli" officials that the Obama administration drafted and forced the resolution to a vote.

Undeterred by the UN resolution, the "Israeli" entity's al-Quds [Jerusalem] municipality is due to consider requests for construction permits for hundreds of new settler units for "Israelis" in areas captured in 1967 and annexed to the city.

The entity's officials described the abstention as a "shameful" decision. President-elect Donald Trump, who urged the White House to veto the resolution, chided the world body as "just a club for people to get together, talk and have a good time" after the vote.

State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the United States hoped the UN vote would serve as a "wake-up call" that settlements are a detriment to a "two-state solution".

The apartheid "Israeli" entity for decades had pursued a policy of building illegal settlements on territory it captured in a 1967 war with its Arab neighbors, including the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds.

Most countries view the settlements as an obstacle to the resolution of the conflict and Washington considers the settlement activity illegitimate.

Source: News Agencies, Edited by website team