Secretary of State John Kerry will deliver a speech Wednesday on the Obama administration’s vision for Middle East peace, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.
The speech at the State Department comes as the relationship between the US and Israel frays following the Obama administration’s decision to abstain Friday from a UN resolution condemning Israeli settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Kerry said at the time that, “In the coming days, I will speak further to the vote in the Security Council today and share more detailed thoughts, drawn from the experience of the last several years, on the way ahead.”
Any vision painted by Kerry, though, will be short-lasting: In less than a month, Kerry will leave the State Department and the Donald Trump administration — which has promised to not allow snubs like this to happen again — will take over.
The President-elect weighed on Twitter Wednesday morning ahead of Kerry’s speech to make that much clear.
“We cannot continue to let Israel be treated with such total disdain and disrespect. They used to have a great friend in the U.S., but not anymore. The beginning of the end was the horrible Iran deal, and now this (U.N.)!” Trump tweeted. “Stay strong Israel, January 20th is fast approaching!”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered a quick reply to Trump on Twitter, thanking him for his “warm friendship” and “clear-cut support.”
A senior Israeli official told CNN Tuesday that Israel will provide detailed, sensitive information to the incoming administration about the US role as a covert partner in the Security Council resolution. The administration has denied such involvement.
On Sunday, Netanyahu summoned the US ambassador and launched a scathing attack on the Obama administration after its refusal to veto the UN Security Council resolution.
Toner said at a news briefing Tuesday that Kerry would “touch on” the Israel situation but the speech would be more broadly about the politics of region. Toner said Kerry would also explain how the resolution’s message would be implemented and outline America’s “next steps” — even though the clock is ticking on the administration.
“I don’t want to lean into it that there’s going to be some kind of push behind this,” Toner said. “I think this is, again, Secretary Kerry sharing his vision for how we can resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.”
The United States abstained on the resolution, allowing it to pass, rather than vetoing it — as it usually does with resolutions it sees as overly critical of Israel, leading to US Ambassador Daniel Shapiro being summoned, an Israeli official told CNN Sunday.
In an interview with Israeli Channel 2 television, Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes said, “What Secretary Kerry will be doing is he will give a speech in which he lays out a comprehensive vision for how we see the conflict being resolved — where we see things in 2016 as we unfortunately conclude our term in office without there being significant progress toward peace.”
Kerry had planned to give the speech last Thursday, when the vote was originally planned. Those plans got scrapped after the proposal’s original sponsor, Egypt, forced a delay for a day.
This story has been updated.