Documents obtained by ToI detail principles US aims to advance on securing Gaza ceasefire, including Palestinian state based on 1967 lines ‘as envisioned in Arab Peace Initiative’

The Biden administration is seeking to prevent its Arab partners from advancing a far-reaching vision for an Israel-Palestinian peace settlement when the war in Gaza is over, and is instead advancing a more scaled back framework that is still certain to be rejected by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, according to documents obtained by The Times of Israel.

Since the beginning of the year, the US has been leading a contact group of top ministers from Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Egypt, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority aimed at advancing a plan for the post-war management of the Gaza Strip.

The Arab ministers have also been meeting to coordinate as a group independently of the US. In April, they finished drafting their post-war vision, which included immediate international recognition of a Palestinian state, the establishment of a peacekeeping force in the West Bank and East Jerusalem and the launch of peace talks between Israel and the PA to be completed within two years, leading to a transfer of Israeli control of West Bank crossings to the PA, according to leaked passages of the proposal obtained by the US.

While the US supports the broader two-state solution that the six Arab partners are trying to advance, it deemed their proposal “completely unrealistic,” according to a senior Arab diplomat familiar with the matter.

But recognizing that it could not simply reject the Arab proposal without offering an alternative, the State Department drafted a series of principles that could be used as a basis for continued talks with partners in the Middle East, the Arab official said.

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