Sullivan: Israeli-Palestinian peace doesn’t need to be years away, is possible ‘in near term’

US National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan says peace between Israel and the Palestinians along with an expansion on the Abraham Accords is possible in the “near term,” despite the ongoing war in Gaza.

“It is not impractical… The pieces are there to be put together to achieve this outcome; and not years down the road, but in the near term, if all of us pull together and make the wise and bold decisions to choose this course,” Sullivan says during remarks at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Sullivan says the US is actively working to advance Israel’s integration in the region as a tool to address the crisis in Gaza. His remarks all but confirm The Times of Israel’s reporting last week, which revealed that technical conversations between the US and Saudi Arabia about a potential normalization agreement between Jerusalem and Riyadh have continued amid the Israel-Hamas war.

Three officials told The Times of Israel that while the broader interests of the countries involved have not changed since Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, the price of the “significant Palestinian component” of the deal has gone up.

Explaining the Biden administration’s approach before the war, Sullivan says that the US felt another round of direct negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians was unlikely to succeed.

“We determined that the best approach was to work toward a package deal that involved normalization between Israel and key Arab states together with meaningful progress and a political horizon for the Palestinian people,” Sullivan says.

“That was our goal before October 7, and it was our progress toward that goal that Hamas sought to destroy on October 7,” he adds, while noting that the administration has not given up on its efforts.