Israel's premier savored victory after Washington backed his call for peace talks to resume without the construction freeze sought by the Palestinians.
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, despite Palestinian insistence - which Washington backed only a few months ago - that Israel must first put a stop to all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank.
Israeli analysts said the change of tone came after Washington realized that its main ally would just not give in on settlements.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Palestinians warned the change in focus was bound to doom Washington's wider goal of getting a peace agreement to end the conflict.
Trademark and Copyright Notice: Copyright
2005, The Standard Newspaper Publishing Ltd., and its related entities. All
rights reserved. Use in whole or part of this site's content is
prohibited. Use of this Web site assumes acceptance of the
Terms of Use
and
Copyright Policy.
Please also read our
Ethics Statement.
