FLUSH WITH FAILURE ON EVERY SINGLE FOREIGN POLICY INITIATIVE…CLINTON URGES IMMEDIATE DIALOGUE ON MIDDLE EAST

Clinton urges immediate dialogue on Middle East

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20110421/pl_afp/usmideastisraelpalestinians/print

WASHINGTON (AFP) – Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has urged Israel and the Palestinians to resume dialogue immediately even as unrest roils the region.

The two parties “are trying to analyze what this means for their future position,” Clinton told PBS television.

But “I would hope — and President (Barack) Obama has said that he will continue to press both sides, which is what we believe we have to do — that everyone would realize that negotiations are the only way, but more than that, they are an immediate need.”

Clinton stressed that “it is in the best interest of both the Israelis and the Palestinians, even in the midst of everything going on in the region, to try to turn to the hard work” of negotiating a settlement.

The last US effort to jumpstart the Israeli-Palestinian dialogue on a two-state solution has been bogged down since September as Israel refuses to freeze new settlements in occupied territories.

But “we do not support any unilateral effort by the Palestinians to go to the United Nations to try to obtain some authorization or approval vote with respect to statehood, because we think we can only achieve the two state solution that we strongly advocate through negotiations,” Clinton added.

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