WASHINGTON, Sep. 3, 2010 (Xinhua News Agency) -- U.S. State Secretary Hillary Clinton on Friday urged the Palestinians and Israelis to grasp " maybe the last chance for a very long time" to achieve peace.
Clinton, speaking in a joint interview with Israeli and Palestinian media, said time is not on the side of "either Israeli or Palestinian aspirations for security, peace, and a state."
Under the mediation of the United States, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Thursday relaunched direct talks in Washington, ending a 20-month hiatus.
Both Netanyahu and Abbas said they are strongly committed to the peace effort in their remarks at the direct talks.
But analysts are pessimistic that a peace deal can be achieved within a one-year timeline, given the two sides' huge differences on issues including the status of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees.
"I will be the first to tell you it is very difficult. I cannot change history. I cannot take an eraser to the history books and change everything that has happened between you for so many years, " admitted Clinton.
"But what we can do is offer a different future. But it takes courage to accept that," she added.
All parties, after concluding Thursday's talks, agreed to hold the next round of talks on Sept. 14 and 15, possibly in Egypt.
The Israeli settlement freeze due to expire on Sept. 26 has posed the most immediate test to the direct talks.
Netanyahu said on Tuesday he wouldn't extend the moratorium, while Abbas said if settlement construction resumes, the peace talks will come to an end.
"What we are doing here is creating an atmosphere that is conducive to a final agreement that rests on tough decisions," Clinton said, when asked about the expiring moratorium.
"But I am absolutely convinced that these two men, for different reasons, maybe the two can actually do this," she said, hinting there might be a way out of this dilemma.
Clinton urged both sides to make concessions, stressing that she has never been in a negotiation where "one side got everything. "
