Ramallah (West Bank): US Vice President Joe Biden met Palestinian leaders on Wednesday, telling them Israel`s decision to expand settlement activity in east Jerusalem is undermining the peace efforts he is promoting.
He also stressed the US administration`s commitment to the creation of a viable Palestinian state.
"Our administration is fully committed to the Palestinian people and to achieving a Palestinian state which is viable and contiguous," he told journalists after talks with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
Flanked by Abbas, he again strongly condemned Israel`s green light to the construction of 1,600 settler homes in annexed Arab east Jerusalem, which was announced while he held talks with Israeli leaders on Tuesday.
"It is incumbent on all parties to grow an atmosphere of support for the negotiations and not to complicate them," he said in Ramallah, the political capital of the occupied West Bank.
"Yesterday, the decision by the Israeli government to advance planning for new housing units in east Jerusalem undermines that very trust, the trust that we need right now in order to begin as well as produce profitable negotiations," said Biden.
Abbas also condemned the Israeli move, and a separate decision to build 112 new homes for settlers in the West Bank.
"The decisions announced by the Israeli government over the past two days ... undermine trust and deal a severe blow to efforts deployed over the past months to start indirect negotiations," he said.
The Palestinians want to make east Jerusalem the capital of their promised state.
Biden had hoped his meetings in Jerusalem and Ramallah would serve to boost the indirect talks Israel and the Palestinians have agreed to hold after a 14-month hiatus in peace negotiations.
"The United States considers the goal to be not only in the interests of the Palestinians and the Israelis but in the United States` interests as well," he said.
"We also believe that the gaps between the Israelis and the Palestinians can only be resolved by negotiations. The indirect talks being launched should lead to direct negotiations."
Israel`s decision to expand settlements in east Jerusalem also drew criticism from the UN chief, from the European Union, from the Arab League and even from the office of Israel`s defence minister.
UN chief Ban Ki-moon reiterated that "settlements are illegal under international law."
In Qatar, Arab League chief Amr Mussa told reporters: "The insult has reached a point that not a single Arab could accept.
"Israel does not care about anybody, neither the mediator, nor the Palestinians."
The office of Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, issued a statement expressing "anger after the unwarranted announcement which affects peace negotiations with the Palestinians -- negotiations of the highest interest for Israel."
Israeli media were near-unanimous in condemning the government`s move, which the Haaretz newspaper called a "slap heard round the world."
Maariv pointed out that Biden had hoped to restore the chemistry between the White House and Israel. "And what happened? Within 15 minutes we lost him too."
Before the settlement expansion in east Jerusalem was announced, Biden had reassured Netanyahu of Washington`s "absolute, total, unvarnished commitment to Israel`s security" and of its determination to stop the Jewish state`s arch-rival Iran developing a nuclear weapons capability.
Israel had already given the go-ahead on Monday for 112 new homes in a West Bank settlement in an exception to a partial moratorium on settlement construction announced in November.
The moratorium does not include east Jerusalem, which Israel seized in the 1967 war and later annexed in a move not recognised by the international community. Nor does it include public buildings or settler homes already under construction.
Washington has pushed for months for the two sides to resume talks, but direct negotiations have been on hold since Israel launched a devastating 22-day offensive on the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip in December 2008.
Bureau Report
