US angry at Israeli settlement move
In a sign of tension with Benjamin Netanyahu:
US: The United States expressed clear frustration Tuesday at new
Israeli settlement plans in east Jerusalem, in a sign of renewed tension
with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s government.
Israel approved a plan to build 1,100 new homes in a Jewish
settlement, prompting an angry reaction from the Palestinians who said
it amounted to a direct rejection of the latest international efforts to
restart peace talks.
Both the State Department and the White House issued strong
condemnation after the Israeli interior ministry said the new housing
units had been cleared by its district planning committee.
“The administration and the United States government is deeply
disappointed by that announcement,” President Barack Obama’s spokesman
Jay Carney told reporters aboard Air Force One on a trip to California
and Colorado.
The Quartet the United Nations, the European Union, the United States
and Russia proposed a resumption of talks on Friday, hours after the
Palestinians formally requested admission to the UN as a full member
state. The UN membership bid was vehemently opposed by Israel and its
closest ally, the United States, which argues that the only way to a
real and lasting peace is a Palestinian state set up by direct talks
between the two sides.
“We call on both sides to take steps that improve the prospects of
direct negotiations getting under way,” Carney said.
“We have maintained all along that each side in the dispute, the
Palestinians and the Israelis should take steps that bring them closer
to direct negotiations to resolve the issues that stand in the way of
Palestinian statehood and a secure Jewish state of Israel.
“When either side takes unilateral action that makes it harder to
achieve that, we make our views known just as we did with regard to the
Palestinian action at the United Nations.”
State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland described the Israeli
settlement move as “counterproductive” and said: “We have long urged
both parties to avoid actions which could undermine trust.” AFP
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