Israeli Settlements Said to Delay Start of Direct Peace Talks
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister
Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, declared a 10-month moratorium on building in settlements last November that is set to expire Sept. 26. The
Benjamin Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister, declared a 10-month moratorium on building in settlements last November that is set to expire Sept. 26. The Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg
Plans to start direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority are stalled as U.S. and European officials work to get the Israeli government to agree to halt new construction in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, according to a diplomat with knowledge of the effort.
Defining what constitutes construction of a new settlement by Israel is the sticking point, said the diplomat, who asked not to be identified. The diplomat said negotiators had hoped to be able to announce face-to-face talks earlier this week, and instead are waiting for both sides to compromise.
Israel is insisting talks aimed at the eventual creation of a Palestinian state begin without conditions, while the Palestinian Authority wants Israel to agree to stop building. The diplomatic Quartet of the U.S., Russia, the United Nations and the European Union said mediation led by American envoy George Mitchell is almost complete and direct talks could be announced in days.
“We believe we’re close, and we’re working aggressively to move them into direct negotiations,” State Department spokesman Philip J. Crowley told journalists yesterday in Washington. Negotiators are working to overcome “the lack of trust that has built up over the years regarding this process and get them to yes,” Crowley said.
Crowley declined to say when an agreement might be reached. A second diplomat with knowledge of the negotiations said a statement could come this week.
Obama, Netanyahu
U.S. President Barack Obama has been trying to persuade Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas to move beyond the indirect talks they have been conducting through Mitchell, a former U.S. senator who aided peace efforts in Northern Ireland.
Direct Israeli-Palestinian negotiations were suspended when Israel began a military operation in the Gaza Strip in December 2008 in what was an attempt to stop rocket attacks from the Hamas-controlled territory on its southern towns and cities.
Hamas, an Islamic movement considered a terrorist organization by the U.S., the EU and Israel, fired about 3,200 rockets and mortars into Israel in 2008, according to the Israeli army.
Hamas seized full control of Gaza in 2007 after winning parliamentary elections the previous year, ending a partnership government with Abbas’s Fatah party.
Settlement Construction
The Palestinians have said they won’t meet Netanyahu for peace talks until Israel freezes all settlement construction in the West Bank. Abbas said July 2 that he wanted to see more progress in indirect talks before moving to direct negotiations.
A spokeswoman for the Israeli mission to the UN, Karean Peretz, said yesterday she didn’t know what progress was being made toward direct talks.
Netanyahu declared a 10-month moratorium on building in settlements last November that is set to expire Sept. 26. The freeze excluded public buildings, such as kindergartens, and some 3,000 housing units that previously received government approval.
Netanyahu said the government would continue to build in all areas of Jerusalem. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem, which Israel captured from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war, to be the capital of a future state.
The Israeli leader, who faces opposition from members of his coalition to extending the settlement freeze, has said he is willing to engage in direct talks as long as there are no conditions for the dialogue.
To contact the reporters on this story: Peter S. Green in New York at psgreen@bloomberg.net; Flavia Krause-Jackson in Washington at fjackson@bloomberg.net
Rate this Page