Clinton Says U.S. Wants Extension of Israeli West Bank Settlement Freeze
The U.S. wants Israel to extend the settlement freeze due to expire in two weeks, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said today as she flew to a new round of Middle East peace talks.
“The United States believes that the moratorium should be extended,” Clinton said, referring to the halt in construction in areas claimed by Palestinians. The moratorium expires on Sept. 26.
Meanwhile, Palestinians should make gestures to make certain that negotiations don’t fail, Clinton told reporters. “There are obligations on both sides to ensure that negotiations continue and we’re going to be discussing that in detail over the next few days,” she said.
The Israeli-Palestinian talks have been shadowed by the settlement dispute. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas has said he won’t continue negotiations unless the West Bank freeze is extended.
Clinton is on a four-day trip to Egypt, Jordan and Israel to continue the peace talks begun in Washington earlier this month. The direct negotiations are the first between Israel and the Palestinians in more than 20 months.
President Barack Obama has challenged the two sides to resolve issues that have divided them for decades in a year’s time.
Netanyahu Position
While Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said repeatedly that he won’t extend the settlement moratorium, he showed some flexibility yesterday. In discussions with Middle East envoy Tony Blair, the former British prime minister, Netanyahu said the tens of thousands of homes in various stages of approval wouldn’t all be built, according to an official who asked not to be identified.
Clinton urged Israelis and Palestinians to look beyond immediate disagreements and focus on the larger goal of a comprehensive agreement on a Palestinian state bordering Israel.
“There’s a lot of ways to get to the goal,” Clinton said, defining that as an accord on core issues like borders and territory. If the issue of borders and territory were settled, Clinton said, it would “eliminate the debate about settlements because some areas would be inside Israel and some areas would not be inside Israel.”
Clinton also made clear that the U.S. sees an Israeli- Palestinian agreement as part of a regional process.
Syria, Israel
“The Israeli-Palestinian negotiations are part of what has to happen in the region that would include an agreement between Syria and Israel and Lebanon and Israel, but we have to begin,” the secretary said.
Clinton’s first stop on this trip will be in the resort town of Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, where she is slated to meet Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Netanyahu and Abbas, as well as the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Abdullah bin Zayed.
At the end of the first round of three-way talks on Sept. 2, George Mitchell, the U.S. special envoy to the Middle East, said both sides had agreed the next step would be to seek a framework agreement that would “establish the fundamental compromises necessary to enable them to flesh out and complete a comprehensive treaty.”
Or, as Clinton put it, “this set of meetings is about getting down to business.”
The issues to be settled include water rights, borders, settlements and the rights of Palestinian refugees.
Clinton said that “the time is ripe” for Israelis and Palestinians to reach an agreement, in part because “both leaders recognize that time is not on either of their sides.”
Netanyahu realizes that Iran’s support for the militant groups Hezbollah, on Israel’s border with Lebanon, and Hamas, in the Gaza Strip, pose increasing risks to Israel that have to be addressed, Clinton said. The U.S. classifies Hezbollah and Hamas as terrorist groups.
For both Netanyahu and Abbas, “this is a moment of great opportunity and challenge,” Clinton said. “Neither of them can predict the consequences if this process does not go forward.”
To contact the reporter on this story: Nicole Gaouette in Shannon, Ireland, at ngaouette@bloomberg.net.
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