
A senior Israeli official has said that the talks between the Palestinians and Israel remained inconclusive. Israeli media Haaretz, has quoted the official as saying that both sides will now try to find new ways to advance the Middle East peace process.
US State Department spokesman Philip Crowley also told reporters in New York City that after a considerable effort, US has concluded that US guarantee to pursue Israel for temporary settlement freeze does not create a firm basis to work towards the goal of a framework agreement. He promised continued efforts to try and unblock the Middle East peace process and said Israeli and Palestinian negotiators would visit Washington next week to work towards that end.
AIR correspondent Dhirendra Ojha reports that Israel and US both have now admitted that negotiations between Israel and the U.S. government regarding Israel's renewal of a moratorium on West Bank settlement construction in exchange for an American letter of guarantees have failed. United States had offered Israel a package of incentives, in exchange for a new three-month ban. Demanding settlement freeze in the West Bank, and East Jerusalem, Palestinians have regularly been saying that they will not negotiate while Jewish settlers build on the land they want for a future state. Talks between two sides derailed when a settlement moratorium of Israel expired in September this year.
Meanwhile, the United States has abandoned efforts to convince Israel to freeze the construction of settlements in occupied Palestinian territory as a way to revive direct peace talks between the Israelis and the Palestinians. Washington had been negotiating with Israel to try to meet Palestinian conditions for restarting direct talks.
A senior US official said that attempts to persuade Israel to renew a partial settlement freeze had failed. However, he said this did not mean that the US would no longer try to revive the talks that had been on hold since Israel's partial freeze expired.
The Palestinians suspended talks in September after a 10-month freeze on Israeli building in the West Bank, excluding East Jerusalem, expired.
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