Washington called off a meeting between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the US Middle East envoy because of Israel’s refusal to halt settlement growth, an Israeli newspaper said yesterday.
The mass-selling Yediot Aharonot, quoting an unnamed Israeli official, said that Washington issued a “stern” message to Netanyahu to halt all settlement activity on occupied Palestinian land, including so-called “natural growth” within existing settlements.
“Once you’ve finished the homework we gave you on stopping construction in the settlements, let us know. Until then, there’s no point in having [US Middle East envoy George] Mitchell fly to Paris to meet you,” the official described Washington as saying.
The meeting with Mitchell was to take place in Paris during Netanyahu’s first visit to Europe since taking office earlier this year at the head of a hawkish right-wing government.
An Israeli official said Mitchell would instead meet Israel’s Defense Minister Ehud Barak on Monday in Washington.
“This delay will enable us to throw light on topical questions which are now hanging in the air and have not been resolved,” the official said on Tuesday, without elaborating.
In recent weeks Washington has ramped up pressure on Netanyahu’s government to halt all settlement activity in the occupied West Bank as part of efforts to relaunch the Middle East peace process.
The Palestinians have said they will not meet Netanyahu until Israel halts all settlement activity, and the presence of some 280,000 Israelis in more than 100 settlements across the territory has been seen as a major obstacle to peace efforts.
Netanyahu has vowed not to build new settlements, but said he would allow for “natural growth” within existing settlements, including the main settlement blocs Israel expects to keep in any future peace deal.
But US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said last month that US President Barack Obama had made it clear during Netanyahu’s visit to Washington that he wants no “natural growth exceptions” to his call for a settlement freeze.
The international community considers all settlements in the occupied West Bank and east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 Six Day war, to be illegal.
Archeologists in Peru on Thursday said they found the 5,000-year-old remains of a noblewoman at the sacred city of Caral, revealing the important role played by women in the oldest center of civilization in the Americas. “What has been discovered corresponds to a woman who apparently had elevated status, an elite woman,” archeologist David Palomino said. The mummy was found in Aspero, a sacred site within the city of Caral that was a garbage dump for more than 30 years until becoming an archeological site in the 1990s. Palomino said the carefully preserved remains, dating to 3,000BC, contained skin, part of the
‘WATER WARFARE’: A Pakistani official called India’s suspension of a 65-year-old treaty on the sharing of waters from the Indus River ‘a cowardly, illegal move’ Pakistan yesterday canceled visas for Indian nationals, closed its airspace for all Indian-owned or operated airlines, and suspended all trade with India, including to and from any third country. The retaliatory measures follow India’s decision to suspend visas for Pakistani nationals in the aftermath of a deadly attack by shooters in Kashmir that killed 26 people, mostly tourists. The rare attack on civilians shocked and outraged India and prompted calls for action against their country’s archenemy, Pakistan. New Delhi did not publicly produce evidence connecting the attack to its neighbor, but said it had “cross-border” links to Pakistan. Pakistan denied any connection to
TRUMP EFFECT: The win capped one of the most dramatic turnarounds in Canadian political history after the Conservatives had led the Liberals by more than 20 points Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney yesterday pledged to win US President Donald Trump’s trade war after winning Canada’s election and leading his Liberal Party to another term in power. Following a campaign dominated by Trump’s tariffs and annexation threats, Carney promised to chart “a new path forward” in a world “fundamentally changed” by a US that is newly hostile to free trade. “We are over the shock of the American betrayal, but we should never forget the lessons,” said Carney, who led the central banks of Canada and the UK before entering politics earlier this year. “We will win this trade war and
Armed with 4,000 eggs and a truckload of sugar and cream, French pastry chefs on Wednesday completed a 121.8m-long strawberry cake that they have claimed is the world’s longest ever made. Youssef El Gatou brought together 20 chefs to make the 1.2 tonne masterpiece that took a week to complete and was set out on tables in an ice rink in the Paris suburb town of Argenteuil for residents to inspect. The effort overtook a 100.48m-long strawberry cake made in the Italian town of San Mauro Torinese in 2019. El Gatou’s cake also used 350kg of strawberries, 150kg of sugar and 415kg of
RSS