U.S. Department of State
Ian Kelly
Department Spokesman
Daily Press Briefing

Washington, DC

November 16, 2009
www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2009/nov/131982.htm

TRANSCRIPT:
1:43 p.m. EST

...
QUESTION: Yes. Do you have more details about Senator Mitchell's meetings
with the Israeli negotiators in London?

MR. KELLY: No, I don't. I just - I mean, I know that they had meetings
today, but I don't have any readout of it.

QUESTION: A follow-up on this? The Palestinian Authority has asked the
European Union today to back their plan to help the UN Security Council
recognize an independent Palestinian state. And Saeb Erekat has said that
the Palestinian Authority plan to seek U.S. approval. Will -
what's your position toward this request?

MR. KELLY: Well, I don't think that - I'm not aware that they have come to
us seeking our opinion or our approval. I mean, our position is clear. We
support the creation of a Palestinian state that is contiguous and viable.
But we think that the best way to achieve that is through negotiations by
the two parties. And we understand that people might be frustrated, but we
would - we just, as I say, we - it is our very strong belief - we are
convinced that this has to be achieved through negotiation between the two
parties.

QUESTION: So you will veto any --

MR. KELLY: I'm not going to say we're going to - I mean, I don't - I can't
say we're going to veto something we haven't seen or hasn't even been
proposed yet.

QUESTION: So you support a Palestinian state, just not yet?

MR. KELLY: We support a Palestinian state that arises as the result of a
process between the two parties.

QUESTION: There are a lot of people who think that this kind of a unilateral
declaration of statehood by the Palestinians might be the thing that is the
jolt that is needed to get the actual negotiation started. You don't agree
with that?

MR. KELLY: I don't necessarily agree with that, no. I think that the thing
we have to do is get the two parties to sit down, and that is what we're
putting all of our efforts behind. That's what Senator Mitchell is doing in
London today, and that's what we've been doing throughout is to try to get
them to --

QUESTION: Are you --

MR. KELLY: -- start the negotiations again.

QUESTION: Understood, but he's been doing it for 10 months and you've gotten
zero results.

MR. KELLY: Well, I know that 10 months sounds like a long time when it's
said out of context, but this problem has been going on for decades and it' -

QUESTION: Well, some would say millennia. But that doesn't change the fact
of the matter that you've been trying just to get them to sit down with each
other. I mean, not - and then they won't even do that.

MR. KELLY: Well, like I say --

QUESTION: So you're not even at the point where you can say that they've
talked and haven't been able to resolve anything. You can't even get them to
sit down at the table together.

MR. KELLY: Like I say, it's frustrating. I mean, I don't think anybody would
deny that. But it doesn't mean --

QUESTION: Does Mitchell --

MR. KELLY: -- we're not committed to it.

QUESTION: Does Mitchell plan to go anywhere else?

MR. KELLY: I'm not aware of any plans to go anywhere else right now.

QUESTION: Okay. And when you said Steinberg was in Jerusalem for the Saban
Forum and he met with Israeli and Palestinian officials, where did he meet
with them? Who did he meet with, do you know?

MR. KELLY: I - well, they were - he met - he was - he didn't go outside of
Jerusalem, I don't think. And I don't have the list of people that he met
with.

QUESTION: Okay. Well, is it fair to assume that his conversations were
roughly the same as those - along the same lines as Mitchell?

MR. KELLY: Well, given the fact that we are committed and we are putting all
of our efforts behind trying to get the two sides to sit down, I think it is
pretty fair to say they had a consistent message to that end.

...