Alarmed by Israeli plans to build new housing units in settlements and dimming prospects for peace efforts, the administration of US President Barack Obama put out a rare and harsh public rebuke of its main Middle East ally.
The White House said on Friday that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s settlement plans were “inconsistent” with commitments the Jewish state had made previously and were harmful to US attempts to lay groundwork for a resumption in peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
“The United States does not accept the legitimacy of continued settlement expansion and we urge that it stop,” White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement. “We are working to create a climate in which negotiations can take place, and such actions make it harder to create such a climate.”
Netanyahu’s aides, speaking on Friday on condition of anonymity because the plans have not been announced formally, said any Israeli settlement freeze would not halt building the new units or block completion of some 2,500 others currently under construction. They also said the freeze would not include east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians demand for use as their future capital.
The unusually blunt White House criticism reflected the administration’s growing frustration with Netanyahu, whose decision would approve hundreds of new housing units in West Bank settlements before considering even a temporary freeze in construction, as Obama has demanded.
The White House typically refrains from commenting on such moves until their formal announcement. In this case, however, US officials said they acted because Middle East peace envoy George Mitchell already had been briefed on the Israeli plans during the week.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said Mitchell and the Israelis had been having “a very open dialogue” in “very intense discussions.” He would not elaborate.
But one US official familiar with Mitchell’s Wednesday meeting in New York with Netanyahu envoy Yitzhak Molcho and Israeli Defense Ministry chief of staff Michael Herzog said the Israelis “told Mitchell they were going to do it, and he told them they could expect a sharp response.”
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive diplomatic exchange, said the meeting had “not gone well.”
The official added that the White House statement was released before a formal Israeli announcement of Netanyahu’s plans because “we wanted to send a strong signal early on.”
Publicly, the State Department had described Mitchell’s discussion with the Israeli delegation — which came after his talks with Netanyahu a week earlier in London — as a “good meeting.”
The department said Mitchell would travel again to the Middle East this week to follow up. That trip is still on, officials said on Friday.
“The process will continue,” said one.
The official also noted that the statement was not entirely negative and expressed appreciation for “Israel’s stated intent to place limits on settlement activity.”
“We are working with all parties — Israelis, Palestinians and Arab states — on the steps they must take to achieve that objective,” Gibbs said.
Netanyahu’s refusal to bend on the settlement issue despite repeated US appeals threatens to damage Obama’s credibility in the Arab world. The administration is counting on Arab support for a resumption in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations but will not likely get it unless Netanyahu makes concessions on settlements.
The Palestinians have said they will not sit down for talks unless there is a settlement freeze and Arab leaders have made similar demands.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of