MICHELE NORRIS, Host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Michele Norris.
MELISSA BLOCK, Host:
NPR's Michele Kelemen has the latest.
MICHELE KELEMEN: Secretary Clinton says, for the Obama administration, 2010 is a year of renewed commitment and increased effort to re-launch talks between the Israelis and Palestinians.
HILLARY CLINTON: There is a hunger for a resolution of this matter, a two-state solution that would rebuke the terrorists and the naysayers, that would give the Palestinians a legitimate state for their own aspirations and would give the Israelis the security they deserve to have.
KELEMEN: At the State Department today, Jordan's Foreign Minister, Nasser Judeh, said from the Arab world's perspective, there have to be clear deadlines and benchmarks if this peace process is to actually yield results.
NASSER JUDEH: Some deadlines have to be put on the table. And these deadlines help to serve the parties rather than present obstacles in the path towards peace. They help the parties put things in the right timeframe and the right perspective. We've said it in the past: We've had too much process and not enough peace. What we don't need in the region right now is another open-ended process that leaves issues unresolved and that leave loose ends without being tied.
KELEMEN: Jordan's foreign minister warned that Jerusalem could be a dangerous flashpoint. Secretary Clinton agreed, but made clear, as she stood next to her Jordanian counterpart today, that she'd like to see Israelis and Palestinians start their negotiations on the issue of borders.
CLINTON: Resolving borders resolves settlements. Resolving Jerusalem resolves settlements. So I think we need to lift our sights. And instead of being - looking down at the trees, we need to look at the forest. You know, where are we headed together?
KELEMEN: She said the Obama administration wants to meet the Palestinian goal of having a viable state based on the borders that existed before the 1967 war with agreed land swaps and meet the Israeli goal of security within its boundaries. Clinton says there is a sense of urgency to all of this, which she heard in both her meetings with Arab officials today, including from Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Ali Aboul Gheit.
AHMED ALI ABOUL GHEIT: We are coming to try to regenerate enough energy and to create enough momentum for a peace effort. And it is crucial that we would win, and we would succeed, and we would bring the process on a proper basis.
KELEMEN: Michele Kelemen, NPR News, the State Department.