U.S. President Donald Trump's long-awaited Middle East peace proposal is nearing completion, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Nikki Haley said Thursday.
"I think they're finishing it up," Haley said, speaking at a question-and-answer session at the University of Chicago's Institute of Politics.
Haley offered no details on when the plan may be unveiled.
Haley spoke one day after Trump's two top envoys on the Middle East, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Special Representative for International Negotiations Jason Greenblatt, met with the U.N. Security Council and asked for its support for the upcoming peace plan.
"They're still going back and forth," Haley said of Kushner and Greenblatt.
"The plan won't be loved by either side. And it won't be hated by either side. But it's a template to start talking," she said.
The revelation came after questioning by the institute's chief, David Axelrod – a former senior adviser to Trump's predecessor President Barack Obama – about the U.S.'s controversial decision in December to recognize Jerusalem as Israel's capital.
"Congress had overwhelmingly voted to name Jerusalem the capital of Israel and to put our embassy in the capital," Haley said, adding that multiple presidents had struggled with a "fear doctrine that the sky was going to fall" if such a declaration was made.
"The sky is still up there, and now what we have is a time where the negotiations can start between Israelis and Palestinians," she said.
Axelrod asked if the U.S. would propose an independent Palestinian state as part of its plan. Haley responded that the notion of a two-state solution, while still being publicly advocated by the Palestinians, was a matter for Israel and the Palestinians to decide.
"It's for them to decide. It is hard for me to see how they would want a single state," she said, adding that she thinks both sides are "pushing toward a two-state" outcome.
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday called for an international conference to be held by mid-2018 to launch a wider peace process in which the United States would not have the central mediating role.
