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Israel’s Barak downplays US settlement dispute
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak sought on Wednesday to downplay disagreements with Washington over settlement expansion, saying it was “only one component” in the Middle East peace process.
Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak sought on Wednesday to downplay disagreements with Washington over settlement expansion, saying it was “only one component” in the Middle East peace process.
His remarks came after a meeting in New York with US Middle East envoy George Mitchell that followed repeated White House demands for Israel to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
“We must put this issue in perspective, bearing in mind that it is only one component in the context of an overall agreement for peace with the Arab world,” Barak told Israeli public radio.
While acknowledging that differences on the issue remained between Israel and its most important ally, Barak insisted “we have not been at an impasse and we are not at one now.”
He said he believed Israel and the United States were close to reaching a compromise on settlements that would avoid the complete freeze that US President Barack Obama has demanded.
He added that Israel would not “construct new settlements or new neighbourhoods in existing settlements” but would proceed with “construction work already underway.”
Right-wing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has said he will not allow the building of new settlements but will also not halt the “natural growth” of existing settlements Israel intends to keep in any peace deal.
Public radio quoted a senior official as saying “conditions were ripe” for face-to-face talks between Netanyahu and Mitchell after a previously scheduled meeting was cancelled a week ago.
The presence of more than 280,000 Israelis in over 100 settlements scattered across the West Bank has long been seen as a major obstacle to peace talks and the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
The Palestinians have refused to hold talks with Netanyahu while settlement activity continues, and the international community -- which views all settlements as illegal -- has repeatedly called for a complete freeze.
Under a 2003 international peace roadmap, to which Israel committed itself, the Jewish state is required to halt all settlement activity, including natural growth, and to remove settlement outposts erected after March 2001.
