Kerry to meet Netanyahu over Israeli settlements

US Secretary of State John Kerry has left Washington for Italy to meet Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over Israeli settlement building.

Kerry left the US on Saturday ahead of the publication of an international report which is expected to criticize Israel for expanding Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

The top US diplomat will meet Netanyahu on Sunday and Monday in Rome in a bid to assess the possibility of reviving the Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.”

However, US officials have been cautious not to predict any breakthrough in the meeting which is likely to touch on the release of the report by the Middle East Quartet aimed at fostering the so-called “two-state” solution.

The publication of the report by the Quartet group – the United States, the European Union, the United Nations and Russia – has been delayed for several times, but Israeli officials say it will only be released after Netanyahu meets with Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

The diplomatic group is concerned that the ongoing crisis is setting back the prospect of peace.

“There are plenty of issues coming up that merit Israel and the United States' discussion,” Kerry’s spokesman John Kirby said this week ahead of his trip.

The Quartet's report “will include recommendations that will help inform international discussions on the best way to advance a two-state solution,” Kirby noted.

It will “largely” reflect the Quartet's earlier statement issued in September, 2015, he added.

That report said Israel's “ongoing settlement activity and the high rate of demolition of Palestinian structures” was “dangerously imperiling the viability” of a deal between Palestinians and Israel.

According to diplomats, the current language in the forthcoming report is strong and harshly criticizes Israel’s construction of settler units in the occupied West Bank and East al-Quds (Jerusalem), which is considered illegal under international law.

However, there is speculation that the wording of the report may be softened before it is published next week.

The Quartet report was written following a meeting of its foreign affairs representatives in Munich, Germany, earlier this year. It sought to explore the reasons behind a stalemate in the negotiations between Israel and Palestinians, and the revival of the so-called peace talks between the two sides.

The last round of talks between Israelis and Palestinians collapsed in 2014. Tel Aviv’s illegal settlement activities and its refusal to release senior Palestinian prisoners were among major reasons behind the failure of the talks.

More than half a million Israelis live in over 230 illegal settlements built since the 1967 Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories of the West Bank and East al-Quds.

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