UN General Assembly
1997

In the wake of the visit to the Middle East of the United States Secretary of State, renewed agreement has been reached to continue the efforts at restoring the peace process to its proper track. We have been conducting intensive talks in recent days, with the assistance of the United States, both in Washington and here, with a view to resuming the negotiations and advancing our efforts to reach a permanent settlement with the Palestinians. Israel values and appreciates the action of the United States Secretary of State and her commitment and efforts to extricate the peace process from its current impasse, to bring the parties closer together and to ensure the success of the negotiations. We are fully committed to these efforts. 26 Israel reaffirms its proposal to conduct accelerated negotiations, according to an agreed timetable, on permanent status. We propose conducting negotiations in which the sides will agree upon the desired outcomes and the way towards achieving them. This proposal is intended to hasten the attainment of a peaceful settlement, not to