US engagement before formation of interim Palestinian govt./Shooting of Palestinian teenagers/USDoS press briefing/Non-UN document (excerpts)

Jen Psaki

Spokesperson
Daily Press Briefing

Washington, DC

May 30, 2014

/…

PALESTINIANS

ISRAEL/PALESTINIANS 

TRANSCRIPT:

1:57 p.m. EDT/…

QUESTION: If we can change topic to the Palestinian issue?

MS. PSAKI: Sure. Mm-hmm.

QUESTION: The Palestinians claim that the United States issued an invitation to Rami Hamdallah, who is the prime minister of the Palestinians, past and present. He’s been asked to form a government – a national unity government. Is that true? Could you confirm that he’s been issued an invitation? And if that is true, then does that mean that he will work with a national unity government that includes Hamas?

MS. PSAKI: Well, there has been no invitation issued to Prime Minister Hamdallah. As we’ve said all along, we’ll not make decisions until we see the final formation of the interim government and have the opportunity to assess and make a determination about whether this is a government we can work with. And we will base that assessment on the government’s composition, policies, and actions. So we’ll have to take a look when any official announcement is made.

QUESTION: So the claim made by this Palestinian official is just plain false?

MS. PSAKI: Correct.

QUESTION: Okay.

MS. PSAKI: Be careful about background claims.

/…

QUESTION: Wait, wait, wait. I want to stay on Middle East for a second.

MS. PSAKI: Oh, sure. Then we can go to you, Nicole.

QUESTION: Sorry. It’ll be very brief.

MS. PSAKI: Okay.

QUESTION: One, have you gotten an update from the Israelis on the investigation into the fatal shooting in the West Bank?

MS. PSAKI: I have not, no.

QUESTION: Do you know if you’ve been in touch?

MS. PSAKI: I suspect that any update they might do publicly, I would suspect. I’d leave it to them to make that determination.

/..

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2014/05/227008.htm#PALESTINIANS