Palestinians reject any US deal with Israel on settlements.Byline: Daily Star StaffSummary: Palestinians reject any deal between Israel and the United States United States, officially United States of America, republic (2005 est. pop. 295,734,000), 3,539,227 sq mi (9,166,598 sq km), North America. The United States is the world's third largest country in population and the fourth largest country in area. that would allow even limited Jewish settlement construction in the Occupied West Bank, a top Palestinian negotiator said on Sunday. "There are no middle-ground solutions for the settlement issue: either settlement activity stops or it doesn't stop," Saeb Erekat  This page is currently protected from editing until disputes have been resolved. told Voice of Palestine
Voice of Palestine (Arabic: صوت فلسطين radio. Ali Sawafta Reuters RAMALLAH, Occupied West Bank: Palestinians reject any deal between Israel and the United States that would allow even limited Jewish settlement construction in the Occupied West Bank, a top Palestinian negotiator said on Sunday. "There are no middle-ground solutions for the settlement issue: either settlement activity stops or it doesn't stop," Saeb Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio. Erekat said Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas Mahmoud Abbas (Arabic: محمود عباس) (born March 26, 1935), also known by the kunya Abu Mazen expressed that message in a letter on Saturday to US President Barack Obama. Erekat was responding to reports Israel and the United States were discussing a compromise that would allow some building in existing settlements under what Israel terms "natural growth" to accommodate expanding families. An American official denied on Wednesday a report in the Israeli newspaper Maariv that the Obama administration had agreed work could continue on 2,500 housing units whose construction had begun, despite its call for a total freeze to spur peace efforts. The report followed talks in London last week between Obama's special Middle East envoy envoy: see diplomatic service. Envoy - Motorola's integrated personal wireless communicator. Envoy is a personal digital assistant which incorporates two-way wireless and wireline communication. George Mitchell George Mitchell may refer to:
The US State Department said Mitchell was expected in the region "soon" for talks with Israeli and Palestinian officials. Barak has been seeking a deal with the United States that would include initial steps by Arab states to normalize normalize to convert a set of data by, for example, converting them to logarithms or reciprocals so that their previous non-normal distribution is converted to a normal one. relations with Israel in return for limiting settlement activity. Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday renewed his call for Abbas to resume peace talks, telling his cabinet, "there is no reason for us not to meet anywhere in Israel." In separate remarks, Netanyahu said Palestinians "must finally abandon the demand" to resettle resettle Verb [-tling, -tled] to settle to live in a different place resettlement n Verb 1. families of hundreds of thousands of refugees of a 1948 war over Israel's establishment, which he said could "undermine" the Jewish state. Addressing a memorial to the founder of Zionism, Netanyahu reiterated demands for Palestinians to explicitly recognize Israel as a Jewish state, calling this "the key to peace." Palestinians have said they would not revive stalled peace talks with Israel unless its settlement activities stopped, that they have recognized Israel under past interim peace deals and that refugees must be compensated or resettled Adj. 1. resettled - settled in a new location relocated settled - established in a desired position or place; not moving about; "nomads...absorbed among the settled people"; "settled areas"; "I don't feel entirely settled here"; "the advent of settled . "If settlement continues Israel will be allowed to build one thousand units here and two thousand units there, which will lead Arabs and Palestinians to believe that the American administration is incapable of swaying sway v. swayed, sway·ing, sways v.intr. 1. To swing back and forth or to and fro. See Synonyms at swing. 2. Israel to halt its settlement activities," Erekat told the radio. "The message is clear: settlements should stop immediately." Some 500,000 Israelis live in the Occupied West Bank and Occupied East Jerusalem East Jerusalem refers to the part of Jerusalem captured by Jordan in the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, and subsequently by Israel in the 1967 Six-Day War. It includes Jerusalem's Old City and some of the holiest sites of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, such as the Temple Mount, Western , areas Israel captured in the 1967 Middle East war. Palestinians say Jewish settlements, deemed illegal by the World Court, deny them a viable and contiguous state. Western officials said the United States was moving in the direction of making allowances so Israel could finish off at least some existing projects which are close to completion. Israel estimates 2,500 units are in the process of being built, but under US pressure, Netanyahu has pledged not to build any new settlements in the Occupied West Bank. Copyright 2009, The Daily Star. All rights reserved. Provided by Syndigate.info an Albawaba.com company |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion