By NNN-WAFA
Washington : U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice warned Israel on Friday that its plan to build 300 housing units on land captured in the 1967 threatened U.S.-backed efforts to achieve peace with the Palestinians.
“We are in a time when the goal is to build maximum confidence with the parties and this doesn’t help to build confidence,” she said in rare U.S. criticism of Israel.
“There should not be anything which might prejudge final-status negotiations,” Rice said after talks with Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on the sidelines of a NATO meeting of foreign ministers.
“It’s even more important now that we are on the eve of the beginning of the negotiations. I made that position clear,” she told a news conference.
Israeli daily newspaper “Haaretz” reported on Friday that the U.S. has requested that Israel provide clarifications on the building plan.
Palestinian leaders have said the plan undermines the peace process, aimed at reviving talks that had been dormant for seven years.