AMMAN, 1 April 2008 — US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said yesterday that Washington still considered the expansion of Jewish settlements in the West Bank “not consistent” with Israel’s obligations under the Quartet’s road map and urged the Jewish state to stop it.
“We continue to state America’s position that settlement activity should stop, that its expansion should stop and that it is indeed not consistent with road-map obligations,” Rice said during a joint press conference with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.
She held her second meeting in less than 24 hours with Abbas as part of moves to push forward peace negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.
Rice said that the Israeli-Palestinian talks on core issues were “moving in the right direction” and pledged the US would “continue to pursue the Annapolis track” with a view to reaching a peace agreement between the two sides “that leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state” before the end of the year.
“The best thing we can do is to focus on this agreement,” Rice added.
Rice said that she held another meeting in Jerusalem earlier yesterday with her Israeli counterpart Tzipi Livni and other negotiators. “These are serious people who are engaged in serious work,” she said, adding that she found the work that had been done so far in the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians “very impressive.”
Rice was referring to a package that Israel recently agreed to work out to improve the life of Palestinians, including the removal of 50 roadblocks in the West Bank. “It is not the end of what must be done, but it is just the start,” Rice said.
For his part, Abbas said he was “confident” a US-brokered peace accord would be worked out with Israel before the end of the year.
Abbas added that he had received an invitation from US President George W. Bush to visit Washington.
“We will continue to honor our commitments under the road map, hoping that the US will make sure that Israel meets its obligations, foremost among them being halting settlement activity, forging a reciprocal and comprehensive truce... and restoring the pre-2000 situation in the Palestinian territories,” he said.
Abbas said he was scheduled to meet Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on April 7.
However, just hours after Rice left the region, Roi Lachmanovitch, a spokesman for the ultra-Orthodox Shas party, said Olmert promised to revive frozen plans to build an additional 800 homes in Beitar Illit, one of Israel’s largest West Bank settlements. “There are more on the way,” he added.
Earlier yesterday, Jerusalem’s city hall had announced it would build 600 new apartments in Pisgat Zeev, a Jewish neighborhood.
