Washington: The United States pressed Israel on Friday to ease its blockade of the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, an issue Arab officials have urged Washington to address as it tries to revive Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters she had an extended discussion with Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak about the war-wrecked coastal enclave.
"We discussed it at length and senator Mitchell and I made clear some of the concerns that we had and some of the ideas about what more could and should be done," Clinton told reporters after she and US special envoy George Mitchell met Barak. "We hope to see progress there."
Israeli-Palestinian peace talks stalled after the Gaza war. Despite calling the Arab-Israeli conflict a priority from the start of his administration, US President Barack Obama's efforts have failed to revive them.
The United States has long urged Israel to ease restrictions on Gaza, where building materials, among other things, remain in chronic short supply and have slowed reconstruction for the territory's 1.5 million residents.
Arab pressure
Daniel Levy, an analyst with the New America Foundation think tank, noted Clinton was pressed by senior Arab officials as well as ordinary citizens about the situation in Gaza when she visited the Gulf last week.
"The threat to the peace talks is renewed violence in Gaza ... but equally problematic for the United States is what the secretary heard in Qatar and Saudi Arabia ... ‘what are you doing for Gaza?'"
