Israel/Palestine/US

US backs down from demand to freeze settlement construction

Article published on the 2009-11-01 Latest update 2009-11-02 10:39 TU

Hillary Clinton met with Mahmud Abbas and Benjamin Netanyahu on 31 October, 2009.
(Photos: Reuters)

The United States switched tack on Middle East negotiations Saturday, dropping its demand for a freeze in Israeli settlement construction on occupied Palestinian territories. The Palestinians, backed by large swathes of the international community, have demanded that all construction be stopped as a precondition to any peace talks.

In a joint news conference held, unusually, before talks with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton pressed for negotiations to be restarted as soon as possible, regardless of Palestinian insistence - which Washington backed only a few months ago - of a settlement freeze.

"There is no question that the United States are our staunchest friends and that Israel's firm stance on its positions pays off," Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon told public radio on Sunday.

Netanyahu criticised the Palestinians for holding up good-faith talks with unrealistic preconditions.

"We have shown a willingness to do unprecedented things to relaunch the process," he said on Sunday. "But we are encountering the opposite from the Palestinians. We are encountering preconditions from the Palestinians that haven't been set in all the 16 years of the peace process.”

"This reality is clear to everyone today," he said. "It's clear to the international community and of course the United States."

Clinton seemed to agree. "What the Prime Minister has offered in specifics of a restraint on the policy of settlements... is unprecedented," Clinton said at Saturday's press conference.

“There’s never been a precondition. There’s never been such an offer from an Israeli government. And we hope to be able to move into the negotiations where all the issues that President Obama mentioned in his speech at the United Nations will be on the table for the parties to begin to resolve,” Clinton said in Jerusalem.

Her statements marked a sharp easing of tone on the issue. In May, after US President Barack Obama's first meeting with Netanyahu, Clinton had said Obama "wants to see a stop to settlements. Not some settlements, not outposts, not natural growth exceptions."

The Palestinians argue a settlement freeze is not their precondition but an obligation Israel undertook when it signed on to the 2003 international roadmap for peace plan.

"Israel should not be given any excuse to continue building settlements," said Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas' spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeina. "This is the main obstacle in the way of peace."

“Those who believe that talking peace is better than not talking peace will see this as a step forward,” says correspondent Mark Lavie in Jerusalem.

“Those who believe that talking peace without achieving peace in the end damages prospects for calm in the area would see it as a step backward,” he told RFI.

Lavie said the change of tone came after Washington realised that its main ally would just not give in on settlements, supported by the vast majority of the electorate of Netanyahu's right-leaning government.

“Even if Netanyahu wanted to – and he doesn’t – he couldn’t get through his own government a total freeze on settlement construction in the West Bank.”

Clinton and Netanyahu decided that US Middle East envoy George Mitchell would stay on for a day for follow-up talks.