DANIEL BASES
NEW YORK, July 1: Israeli defence minister Ehud Barak said on Tuesday after talks with the US West Asia envoy that it was too soon to say whether Israel would freeze West Bank settlements as demanded by US President Barack Obama.
Mr Barak said the talks with envoy George Mitchell, which lasted over four hours, were "positive" but that there are still "differences." In a joint statement issued after their meeting, Mr Barak and Mr Mitchell said they had discussed the full range of issues related to West Asia peace and security. The statement said the discussions were constructive and would soon continue. In a rare rift between Israel and the United States, Mr Obama is pushing for a building freeze in a bid to spur the resumption of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks.
Asked whether Israel would declare a temporary settlement building freeze, Mr Barak said: "I think that it’s a little bit too early to predict. We are considering every positive contribution Israel can make towards the taking off of a significant important peace effort," he said.
Mr Barak said a meeting between Mr Mitchell and Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu was being arranged in the next one to three weeks. The two had planned a meeting in Paris on last Thursday but it was put off by Israel, which said it needed more time to prepare. Israel’s newspaper Yedi-oth Ahronoth reported on Sunday that Mr Barak would propose a three-month halt to construction starts in settlements but allow current building work to continue.
Mr Barak said the talks were not mired down by the settlements issue. "I don’t think we are stuck, We are continuing talks on a wide variety of subjects, to clarify things and reach understandings," he said. —Reuters
