“I am saying one thing. There will be no freeze on construction in Jerusalem,” Benjamin Netanyahu told Channel Two television. “Everyone knows it. There is perfect agreement on the fact that there cannot be preconditions to negotiations,” he added, an apparent reference to Palestinian demands that settlement construction be halted before direct peace talks can resume.
Netanyahu spoke as US envoy George Mitchell arrived for talks with Israeli and Palestinian leaders, which a US official said would take place on Friday.
Although Premier Netanyahu was repeating his long-standing position, the timing of the statement threatened to undermine Mitchell’s latest efforts to restart peace talks.
Mitchell is to meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah on efforts to relaunch peace talks with Israel, chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat said.
Erekat told Voice of Palestine radio that “US President Barack Obama has vowed to continue pushing the peace process forward until the establishment of two states — Palestine and Israel.”
He added that the US commitment “came in a message Obama sent to Abbas on Wednesday in the Jordanian capital of Amman.”
Erekat said the Palestinian leadership “is waiting for US clarifications to specific questions about the Israeli settlement activity in West Bank and East Jerusalem before the resumption of peace talks.”
Israeli government spokesmen would not immediately confirm whether Mitchell would also meet Netanyahu. There was no immediate US reaction.
Washington had managed to convince the two sides to engage in indirect talks that would be run by Mitchell, but they got sidetracked in early March after Israel announced plans to build 1,600 new homes in East Jerusalem.
Netanyahu has repeatedly refused to curb Jewish construction in East Jerusalem, saying he is following a four-decade-old policy of his predecessors.
But in the TV interview, he said he hopes to resolve the differences with Washington, Israel’s closest and most important ally.
“There are ups and downs. There is a very strong fabric of relations that will allow us to overcome these problems in the end and reach understandings,” he said.
Netanyahu also sought to downplay the chances of conflict on Israel’s northern border, despite Israeli and US fears that Syria may be sending missiles to Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah movement.
“We do not want war. But weapons have been transferred to Hezbollah across the border between Syria and Lebanon, and this is unacceptable,” he said.
On Iran, the premier said tough sanctions were the way to thwart Iran’s controversial nuclear program of uranium enrichment. “The United States could prevent Iran from equipping itself with nuclear weapons by imposing severe sanctions, without having to go through the UN Security Council where there are always problems,” Netanyahu said.
— With input from agencies
