uly 30, 2013 -- Updated 1649 GMT (0049 HKT)
Washington (CNN) -- Israeli and Palestinian
officials have agreed to "remain engaged in sustained, continuous and
substantive negotiations" that will include "all core issues" toward
achieving a final-status peace agreement in the Middle East conflict,
Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday.
Fareed's Take: Mideast peace talks
Amanpour on Mideast and Egypt
A new beginning for Mideast peace talks
Israeli and Palestinian officials have agreed to "remain engaged in
sustained, continuous and substantive negotiations," U.S. Secretary of
State John Kerry said. FULL STORY
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WILL IT WORK?
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OPINION: LISTEN TO BOTH SIDES
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OPINION: LISTEN TO BOTH SIDES
July 30, 2013 -- Updated 1641 GMT (0041 HKT)
Could Middle East peace talks succeed?
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: Agreement on negotiations announced by Secretary of State John Kerry
- NEW: Kerry said talks will be substantive with aim of final status deal in nine months
- Israel agrees to release some Palestinian prisoners
- Obstacles include agreeing on the status of Jerusalem
Speaking at the State
Department, Kerry said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators will meet
again "in the next two weeks" in either Israel or the West Bank to
continue talks with the hopes of reaching a deal early next year.
"When somebody tells you
that Israelis and Palestinians cannot find common ground or address the
issues that divide them, don't believe them," Kerry said.
Fareed's Take: Mideast peace talks
"While I understand the
skepticism, I don't share it and I don't have time for it," he said,
noting that the parties had constructive discussions and met with
President Barack Obama at the White House.
Officials have no
illusions about the challenge of achieving a final status agreement that
creates a separate Palestinian state in part of what is now Israel.
Amanpour on Mideast and Egypt
A new beginning for Mideast peace talks
Major obstacles that date
back decades in the Middle East conflict include established Jewish
settlements in territory claimed by the Palestinians, the status of
Palestinian refugees seeking to return to the region, and control of
Jerusalem, particularly its Muslim holy sites.
All sides acknowledge that the talks will be difficult.
Kerry has pushed to
resume the Middle East negotiations in order to stave off a showdown
over the Israel-Palestinian question at the U.N. General Assembly in
September.
Former U.S. ambassador to Israel, Martin Indyk, will be the U.S. envoy to the talks.
The first round of talks
included Israeli Justice Minister Tzipi Livni and attorney Isaac Molho,
an aide to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as Palestinian
chief negotiator Saeb Erakat and Fatah official Mohammad Shtayyeh.
Obama has called the talks "a promising step forward," but added that "hard work and hard choices remain ahead."
Kerry said the parties
had also agreed that the two sides will keep the content of the
negotiations confidential and that he would serve as the spokesman for
the talks.
Both Israeli Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud
Abbas face opposition to the peace process.
To help set up the revived talks, Netanyahu prodded the Israeli government into approving the release of 104 Palestinian prisoners -- a move that flies in the face of popular sentiment in Israel.
While some observers
called the prisoner release a possible sign of hope for some kind of
resolution in what has been an intractable conflict, opponents of the
peace talks insisted divisions remain too deep to overcome.
Meanwhile, protests against the negotiations in Ramallah on the West Bank showed broader Palestinian discontent.
The protesters consider
the planned talks "deeply dangerous to the Palestinian national cause,"
said the Addameer Prisoner Support and Human Rights Association, a
Jerusalem-based Palestinian nongovernmental organization.
Hamas, which governs the
Palestinian territory of Gaza, issued a statement saying that it
"rejects the Palestinian Authority return to peace talks with the
Israeli occupation authorities."
CNN's Adam Aigner-Treworgy, Michael Schwartz and Ashley Fantz contributed to this report.
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