Clinton Israel must act to ease Palestine tensions
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton,has warned Israel that Washington still opposes new Jewish settlements in the West Bank and that they should make greater effort to lower tensions.
Clinton is on tour aimed at re-launching Middle East peace talks. She praised efforts by Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas to improve security and said Israel must follow in the same footsteps.
The United States had urged a total halt to new Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank as a precursor to new negotiations, but on Saturday Clinton said Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s offer to restrict new building was “unprecedented”.
Clinton said Monday that Netanyahu’s offer “falls far short of our preferences” but was still worth seizing.
“If it is acted upon it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and will have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their growth,” Clinton said ahead of an international conference of Arab foreign ministers in Marrakech, Morocco.
