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Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, has ordered a
reassessment of plans to build nearly 24,000 settler homes, saying he
feared an international outcry that would divert attention from Israel's
lobbying against a nuclear deal with Iran.The right-wing Israeli leader announced the reversal on Tuesday in the face of stiff US opposition to settlement expansion in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem, and Palestinian anger that threatens three-month-old peace talks brokered by Washington.
Before news of Netanyahu's change of course, President Mahmoud Abbas ordered the Palestinian leadership to hold "an urgent emergency meeting in the coming hours, with all options on the table", the Palestinian Maan news agency reported.
Peace Now, which monitors settlement activity on occupied land Palestinians seek for a state, said the Housing Ministry had issued tenders late last month for drawing up construction plans, but that no building work was imminent.
Publication of the tenders had gone unnoticed in the media until Israel's left-leaning Haaretz newspaper and Peace Now reported on the potential projects earlier on Tuesday.
Netanyahu, a strong advocate of settlement building, appeared to have been caught unawares by the proposals, which were disclosed only days after John Kerry, US secretary of state, visited Israel and the West Bank in a bid to salvage peace negotiations that have shown little sign of progress.
'Bad deal'
Before leaving Israel, amid Netanyahu saying that "a very bad deal" was in the making between world powers and Iran over its nuclear programme, Kerry urged Israel to limit settlement activity.
In a slap down of a key partner in his governing coalition, Netanyahu reprimanded Uri Ariel, the housing minister, of the pro-settler Jewish Home party for publishing the tenders "without prior coordination".
- A statement issued by Netanyahu's office said he ordered Ariel to reassess all of the proposed projects.
"World attention must not be diverted from the primary goal - preventing Iran from achieving an agreement that would enable it to continue its nuclear military programme," Netanyahu's statement said.
Israel, widely believed to be the Middle East's only atomic power, has been pushing for total dismantling of Iran's nuclear-enrichment capabilities and cautioning against any premature easing of economic sanctions.
aljazeera.com
13/11/13
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Related:
- Israël va construire 5.000 nouveaux logements dans les colonies, selon Haaretz ...
UN chief deplores plans for further Israeli settlements in occupied Palestinian territory. -(Announcement hours after freeing 26 Palestinian prisoners)
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Palestinian delegation to talks with Israel tenders resignation...
ReplyDeleteTEL AVIV, November 13 (Itar-Tass) - Palestine’s chief negotiator Saib Arikat and one of the Fath movement leaders, Muhammad Shtaya, who lead the Palestinian delegation to the talks with Israel, tendered resignation, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas told the Egyptian CBC television channel on Wednesday, November 13.
He did not specify when the resignation had been tendered, but said that the talks with Israel would continue. Abbas made it clear though that it would take at least a week to resume the work. “Either we manage to convince them [Arikat and Shtaya] to come back, and we are trying to do that, or we will form a new delegation,” he said.
Direct Palestinian-Israeli talks resumed in late July after an almost three-year break. The sides have held at least 16 meetings since then but with no progress on any of the issues discussed. It is believed that the lack of progress at the talks had prompted Arikat and Shtaya to resign. It is rumoured that both sides were quite emotional at their last meeting. The talks are expected to continue for nine months.
Arikat declined to comment on his resignation but said that the talks had come to a halt last week after Israel had announced plans to build new settlements on the Palestinian territories. Two days ago, Shtaya made a strong statement saying that it would be better not to sign any agreement with Israel than to sign an agreement allowing further settlement activities in the West Bank.
In his opinion, a bad agreement is an agreement that is based on Israel’s colonial ambitions rather than on internationally recognised principles and international law......http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c32/956560.html
13/11/13
Palestinian negotiation team resigns over Israeli settlement building...
ReplyDeletePalestinian negotiators resigned on Wednesday from U.S.-mediated peace talks with the Israelis, citing a lack of progress clouded by Israeli settlement building, President Mahmoud Abbas said Wednesday.
Peace talks resumed in July after a three-year hiatus but continued Israeli settlement expansions repeatedly threatened to break them.
President Abbas said the peace talks would continue despite the resignation of his negotiation team.
“Either we can convince them to return, and we're trying with them, or we form a new delegation,” he told Egyptian privately-owned CBC television.
It was unclear from Abbas's interview when the Palestinian negotiators had quit, but Abbas said he would need about a week to resume the talks.
Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat told Reuters on Wednesday that talks with Israel were frozen, but did not elaborate on the report of his resignation.
“In reality, the negotiations stopped last week in light of the settlement announcements last week,” he said.
Israel has announced plans for building several thousand new settler homes in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The Housing Ministry had commissioned separate plans for nearly 24,000 more homes for Israelis in the two areas, despite U.S. and Palestinian warnings that such moves threaten peace talks.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, an advocate of settlement construction, intervened late on Tuesday, ordering a halt to the projects and saying he had no prior knowledge of them.
Netanyahu said he feared such settlement activity could trigger an international outcry that would divert attention from Israel's lobbying against a deal between world powers and Iran that would ease economic sanctions on Tehran without dismantling its nuclear-enrichment capabilities.
(With Reuters)
http://english.alarabiya.net/en/News/middle-east/2013/11/13/Abbas-Palestinian-peace-talks-delegation-resigns-.html
13/11/13