The Washington government Tuesday said that the Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet again within two weeks in a bid to end the long-standing conflict between the two sides.
"The parties have agreed to remain engaged in sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations on the core issues, and they will meet within the next two weeks either in Israel or the Palestinian territories in order to begin the process of formal negotiation," said the U.S. government. The government is hopeful of a final settlement by the end of April.
After the conclusion of the two-day talks in Washington Tuesday, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said, "the parties have agreed here today that all the final status issues, all the core issues and all other issues are all on the table for negotiation."
Agreeing to Kerry's summarization of the two-day talks, both parties applauded President Obama's effort to end the conflict between the two sides.
John Kerry said "I firmly believe the leaders, the negotiators and citizens invested in this effort can make peace for one simple reason: because they must."
"A viable two-state solution is the only way this conflict can end. And there is not much time to achieve it," added the U.S. secretary of state.
Kerry also said the talks would be cloaked in secrecy and would be mediated on a day-to-day basis by his new Mideast peace envoy, Martin Indyk.
If the United States could end the Israeli- Palestinian conflict, then it would likely be one of Obama administration's biggest achievements.
