By Xinhua,
Washington : The United States hardly criticized Israel’s plan to a new Jewish settlement in the occupied West Bank on Friday, but said “this isn’t viewed as helpful.”
“We don’t believe that this contributes to the atmosphere that we are looking for in terms of proceeding forward with the Middle East peace process,” State Department spokesman Gonzalo Gallegos said of the construction of 20 new housing units for Jewish settlers at a site named Maskiot in the Jordan Valley.
“We believe it’s important that we have as positive an environment as we can to make some progress as we head towards the end of the year,” the spokesman added.
Israeli newspaper Ha’aretz reported on Thursday that an Israeli parliamentary committee has greenlighted the construction of 20 new housing units for Jewish settlers in Maskiot, an abandoned military base in the Jordan Valley the West Bank.
In a visit to Israel and the West Bank in June, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice criticized the Jewish settlement building as having “the potential to harm the negotiations.” However, the United States has never penalized Israel.
When Israeli-Palestinian peace talks were revived in September 2007 after a seven-year suspension, Israel promised not to establish new settlements in the West Bank. The two sides set a goal of reaching a final peace accord by the end of 2008, but have since scaled back their ambitions, in part because disputes over Israeli settlement have impeded progress.
Palestinians want the final deal to outline the formation of a Palestinian state in most of the West Bank, the Gaza Strip and east Jerusalem. Israel captured those territories in the 1967 Mideast war.
Earlier this year, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas briefly called off peace talks, due to continued Israeli construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem.