About an hour into the State Department daily briefing on Monday, a journalist asked the spokesman about the Middle East peace process, known within Foggy Bottom corridors as MEPP.
“Do you have any comment on that?” the journalist asked.
Mark Toner, the deputy spokesperson responded “I don’t have – no. I mean, I don’t have much to add.”
“Obviously, the Secretary met with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas<” he said, stating the obvious. “They did talk about ongoing tensions between Israelis and Palestinians in the West Bank and Jerusalem. They also discussed Haram al-Sharif/Temple Mount. The Secretary continued to urge for calm, de-escalation; decrease in violence, incitement, inflammatory rhetoric.”
The questioner followed up: “The Palestinians are quite panicky that you guys are really no longer interested in this issue, not like you were before. I mean, it’s something that the United States was sort of taking full – sort of in control of at one point or another… are likely to see in the near future, that the Secretary may make a new initiative?
Toner replied: “Unfortunately, I don’t have anything to announce or to preview. The Secretary does remain engaged, obviously, on this issue.”