WASHINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- The Obama administration has been working toward a resumption of peace talks between the Israelis and Palestinians in the coming days, the White House said on Monday.
Efforts were building on an agreement between the two sides, which U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said last week established a basis for fresh "direct final status negotiations."
"If everything goes as expected," Kerry said Friday in Jordan at the end of his four-day shuttle diplomacy, Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat and his Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni will join him in Washington to begin initial talks "within the next week or so."
White House spokesman Jay Carney said "we are working on a date for the parties to come to Washington in the coming weeks to move that process along."
"And this is an enormous challenge and has been an enormous challenge for Israelis and Palestinians and for successive administrations here in Washington," he told reporters at a regular press briefing. "But the fact that it has been such a difficult challenge does not mean it should not constantly be addressed."
President Barack Obama brought Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas together for fresh direct negotiations in Washington in early September 2010, but the talks broke down three weeks later due to Israel's refusal to extend a ban on settlement building in the West Bank.
Kerry has sought to break the deadlock by pursuing a "quiet diplomacy" in his six visits to the region after taking office on Feb. 1, and Obama himself traveled to Israel, the West Bank and Jordan in March.
"As for our level of optimism, it is very cautious optimism because this is such a hard challenge," Carney spoke of the possible talks in Washington.
"To be clear, we have an agreement between parties to resume final status negotiations," State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters. "Nothing has changed since Friday."
"We're continuing to plan to have them in Washington if everything goes to plan," she said. "There's clearly, of course, still hard work to be done."
She said Kerry was trying to have a senior team in place for the upcoming talks, but no decision has been made on a negotiator or envoy.
Livni said Monday that she "truly" hoped that she can meet with Erekat in Washington in the next few days.
"And I truly hope that our dream and aspiration to negotiating in order to end the conflict can be translated into real meetings, real dialogue and hopefully, in the end, ending of conflict," the Israeli justice minister said in an interview with CNN.
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