US ENVOY George Mitchell will return to the Middle East next week with the aim of inaugurating indirect peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians despite anger in Ramallah over Israeli plans to build more homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
Israeli sources expressed confidence that the proximity talks could begin in the near future with officials in the prime minister’s office saying “the crisis over the new building is now behind us”.
Before leaving the region, US vice-president Joe Biden told Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas that Washington would disapprove of a delay in resuming the peace talks.
Us secretary of state Hillary Clinton told Israeli prime minister Binyamin Netanyahu yesterday that his government’s latest settlement plans were a “deeply negative signal” for US-Israeli relations, the US state department said. Mrs Clinton telephoned Mr Netanyahu and said Israel’s plan to build 1,600 new settler homes in an area of the occupied West Bank it annexed to Jerusalem was “a deeply negative signal about Israel’s approach to the bilateral relationship . . . and had undermined trust and confidence in the peace process, state department spokesman PJ Crowley said.
Mr Abbas, speaking yesterday during a visit to Tunisia, said Israel’s announcements for the new building “got in the way” of plans to begin US-mediated indirect talks.
Also travelling to the region next week is EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton, who will join the Americans in urging the sides to get back to the negotiating table. Ms Ashton, who arrives in Cairo tomorrow, said she felt “a sense of urgency” about the Arab-Israeli conflict. “I am going to the region with a clear message to encourage all actors to engage in talks that lead us to a comprehensive regional peace.”
Mr Netanyahu maintained he was taken by surprise by this week’s announcement by the Jerusalem regional planning committee that 1,600 units were to be built in the ultra-orthodox Ramat Shlomo neighbourhood.
To avoid such embarrassments in the future, Labor Party minister Yitzhak Herzog has introduced legislation requiring an official from the prime minister’s office to be present at future planning committee sessions.
With tension still high, Israel clamped a full closure on the West Bank for yesterday and today, preventing Palestinians from entering Israel. Only male worshippers aged 50 or over were allowed to attend Friday prayers at the mosque on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s old city. Some 20 Palestinians were injured in clashes with Israeli troops near Ramallah.
British journalist Paul Martin was released without charge by Hamas authorities in Gaza following an international campaign. He was detained on February 14th by Hamas on suspicion of being involved with Israeli espionage. Hamas officials said there was not enough evidence to charge him and he was released “as a good will gesture”.
– (additional reporting Reuters)