Region | Palestinian Territories
Biden’s visit clouded by Israel approval of 1,600 new colony homes
Move destroys trust needed to start indirect talks, Erekat says
- AP
- Published: 00:00 March 10, 2010
- Image Credit: EPA
- Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu with Biden at Netanyahu's residence in occupied Jerusalem on Tuesday. Biden began talks, preparing the ground for a resumption of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.
Occupied Jerusalem: Israel approved the construction of 1,600 new homes for Jews in occupied east Jerusalem on Tuesday - a move that immediately clouded a visit by US Vice-President Joe Biden aimed at repairing strained ties and kickstarting Mideast peace talks.
The Interior Ministry announced the construction plans just as Biden was wrapping up a series of warm meetings with Israeli leaders. There was no immediate reaction from the vice-president.
Relations between Israel and the Obama administration have been chilly precisely because of the colony issue. The US, like the Palestinians and the rest of the international community, believe that Israeli colonies built on lands claimed by the Palestinians undermine peace prospects, and President Obama has been more outspoken on the issue than his predecessors.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has rebuffed calls from the White House to halt all colony activity, agreeing only to a limited freeze that does not include occupied east Jerusalem.
Interior Ministry spokeswoman Efrat Orbach said the new homes would be built in Ramat Shlomo, a neighbourhood for ultra-Orthodox Jews in occupied east Jerusalem. She noted that there is a 60-day appeals period, indicating that the decision could yet be changed.
But Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said the move was destroying trust needed to go forward with the new round of indirect peace talks, which the two sides agreed this week would take place under the mediation of US envoy George Mitchell.
"With such an announcement, how can you build trust? This is destroying our efforts to work with Mr. Mitchell," he said. "It's a really disastrous situation. I hope that this will be an eye-opener for all in the international community about the need to have the Israeli government stop such futile exercises."
The announcement cast a sudden shadow over the visit by Biden, aimed largely at repairing the relationship with Israel. Biden's public comments throughout the day had clearly been meant to calm Israeli concerns that Obama has been less friendly to the country than past US leaders.
The move also may have been the result of internal politics. A spokesman for Netanyahu said he was unaware of the announcement, raising the possibility that the Interior Ministry - run by a hardline religious party - had not coordinated the news with the Israeli leader or even tried to embarrass him.
Earlier in the day Biden pledged Washington's full commitment to Israel's security while throwing his weight behind a renewal of Middle East peace talks after a 14-month hiatus.
"The cornerstone of the relationship is our absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel's security," Biden said after talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in occupied Jerusalem.
"Progress occurs in the Middle East when everyone knows there is simply no space between the United States and Israel. There is no space between the United States and Israel when it comes to Israel's security."
He also stressed the US determination to prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and demanded that Tehran stop its support of "terrorist organisations," which he said threaten both Israel and the United States.
Biden, the highest-ranking US official to visit Israel and the West Bank since President Barack Obama took office a year ago, also hailed the decision to hold new Middle East talks, despite deep scepticism about the prospects for success.
"I am very pleased that you and the Palestinian leadership have agreed to launch indirect talks. We hope that these talks will lead, and they must lead eventually to negotiations and direct discussions between the parties," he told Netanyahu.
"President Obama and I strongly believe the best long-term guarantee for Israel's security is a comprehensive Middle East peace with the Palestinians, with the Syrians, with Lebanon and leading eventually to full and normalised relationships with the entire Arab world," Biden said.
Netanyahu underlined the need "to be persistent and purposeful in making sure we get to those direct negotiations that will enable us to resolve this conflict."
Biden also held talks with President Shimon Peres who cautioned against premature expectations.
Biden heads on Wednesday to the West Bank city of Ramallah for talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas and prime minister Salam Fayyad, and he also plans to meet former British prime minister Tony Blair, the special envoy for the Quartet of key diplomatic players.
Turkey to mediate
A news report quotes the Turkish prime minister as saying Israel has accepted that Turkey will again mediate talks with Syria.
Turkey's NTV television quotes Recep Tayyip Erdogan as telling reporters in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday that the stalled talks may resume soon.
An Israeli government spokesman had no immediate comment about the report. Turkey mediated several rounds of indirect negotiations between the Mideast rivals in 2008, but little progress was made.
Syria later suspended the talks in response to Israel’s military offensive in Gaza, and Israeli officials said Turkey’s scathing criticism of Israel’s role in the conflict had disqualified it as a mediator.
NTV quoted Erdogan as saying the Syria-Israel talks can begin "any minute".
How much control do you think the US has over this situation? Are peace talks starting to lose their meaning? Tell us.
More from Palestinian Territories
More from Region
News Editor's choice
-
Ukraine leaders fight over Russian language
Violence erupts in Ukraine parliament over a bill to allow use of Russian language in courts, hospitals
-
CBSE: 100% success in many UAE schools
6,000 students from 53 schools meet grade expectations in examinations
-
'I can’t believe he is not going to come back'
Seventeen-year-old boy went missing in Dubai during a visit from Pakistan
