Biden says 'ground is not ripe' right now for two-state solution during meeting with Mahmoud Abbas

President Joe Biden on Friday pledged the United States' ongoing support for a two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinian Authority but suggested now is not the right time to restart negotiations. 

"Even if the ground is not ripe at this moment to restart negotiations, the United States and my administration will not give up on trying to bring the Palestinians and Israelis and both sides closer together," said the president in a meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

"I do believe in this moment, when Israel is improving relations with its neighbors throughout the region, we can harness that same momentum to reinvigorate the peace process between the Palestinian people and the Israelis."

The president said that while he was an early supporter of a two-state solution, Israel's government will be in election mode for the next few months and therefore unlikely to concentrate a significant amount of focus or effort on negotiations with the Palestinians. 

Biden argued that a two-state deal remains "the best way to achieve equal measure of security, prosperity, freedom and democracy for the Palestinians as well as Israelis."

"The Palestinian people deserve a state of their own that’s independent, sovereign, viable, and contiguous," he said. "Two states for two people, both of whom have deep and ancient roots in this land. Living side by side in peace and security. Both states fully respect in equal rights of the others’ citizens, both peoples enjoying equal measure of freedom and dignity. That’s what this is fundamentally all about."

The president expressed sympathy for the recent killing of Palestinian-American journalist Shireen Abu Akleh and said that "the Palestinian people are hurting now. You can just feel it. Your grief and frustration – in the United States we can feel it. But we never give up on the word peace."

Following Biden's stop in the West Bank, he will fly from Tel Aviv to Saudi Arabia.