Obama Said to Be Crafting Plan for Israeli-Palestinian Talks

After a string of failed attempts at brokering peace in the Middle East, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks are apparently on the horizon again. The Guardian reports that President Obama is close to starting up new talks, with a plan to have a deal brokered within two years.

The state everyone will be talking about, though, won't be at the table. Iran and its nuclear ambitions have made Israel increasingly nervous. Israel is now reportedly willing to halt building additional settlements in the West Bank -- long a sticking-point in negotiations -- in exchange for U.N. economic sanctions on the Iranian oil industry.

"Iran is an existential threat to Israel; settlements are not," one unnamed official explained to the Guardian. Even with sanctions, though, stopping nuclear expansion in Iran is likely to be tricky. Iran has repeatedly insisted that it has the right to pursue nuclear capability and that its program is peaceful. Earlier this week, U.N. nuclear inspectors entered Iran and are expected to release a report on their findings soon.

As plans for the talks continue to evolve, Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad on Tuesday released his plan for creating the outlines of a Palestinian state within the next two years. He told the New York Times that he was not trying to replace negotiations but to "reinforce" them.

Though the launch date for any Obama-brokered talks has not been set, the Guardian said the administration could make an announcement in late September.