US condemns Israel :

US condemns Israel

US: The United States on Tuesday condemned Israel’s approval of 1,600 housing units in a Jewish neighborhood in East Jerusalem, urging both Israel and the Palestinians to build an atmosphere to support peace talks.

“I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units in East Jerusalem,” said U.S. Vice President Joe Biden in a statement, adding “this announcement underscores the need to get negotiations under way that can resolve all the outstanding issues of the conflict.”

The Israeli Interior Ministry on Tuesday said it has approved the construction of 1,600 new housing units in a Jewish neighborhood in a disputed section of Jerusalem. The neighborhood sits in the section of the holy city the Palestinians claim to be the capital of their future state, widely referred to as East Jerusalem.

The announcement was made when Biden has just held warm talks with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on resuming peace talks with the Palestinians, which were stalled in December 2008 when Israel launched a massive military campaign against the Islamic Hamas movement in the Gaza Strip.

“The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now and runs counter to the constructive discussions that I’ve had here in Israel,” Biden said.

“We must build an atmosphere to support negotiations, not complicate them,” he said. Hours before Biden arrived in Israel on Monday, the Israeli Defense Ministry confirmed that it has given the go-ahead to 112 new houses in a settlement in the West Bank, saying the project, which was already approved by the previous government, did not contradict a promise by the Netanyahu administration on a 10-month- long freezing of settlement construction.

Both projects were made public as U.S. special envoy George Mitchell was also in the region for peace-making efforts. WASHINGTON, Wednesday, Xinhua