US presses Israel for settlement deal

With the first of a series of meetings ending without agreement, George Mitchell and Benjamin Netanyahu will meet again today to finalise pact on a construction freeze.

The Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu, right, and George Mitchell, left, are seen at Mr Netanyahu's office prior to meeting in Jerusalem.

TEL AVIV // George Mitchell, the top US envoy to the Middle East, pressed Israel yesterday to clinch a deal on suspending settlement activity in occupied Palestinian territory even as a key meeting with the country's prime minister ended without breakthroughs.

Mr Mitchell, who arrived in Israel on Saturday for a series of discussions with senior Israeli officials, convened for more than two hours with Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli leader. But their meeting ended without an agreement and the two men are now scheduled to continue talks today to try to finalise details of an agreement. A statement from Mr Netanyahu's office issued after the meeting described the talks as "good", but did not elaborate.

Before his discussion with Mr Netanyahu in Jerusalem, Mr Mitchell indicated he aimed to wrap up an agreement during his current tour in the Middle East. He said: "We hope to bring this phase of our discussions to an early conclusion and to move forward in our common search for a comprehensive peace in the region." The US emissary also met Mahmoud Abbas, the president of the western-backed Palestinian Authority, in the West Bank town of Ramallah last night. Saeb Erekat, a chief Palestinian negotiator, was quoted by news agencies as saying yesterday that Mr Abbas was holding firm to his decision not to resume peace talks with Israel until a total settlement freeze is instituted. Mr Erekat also said that Mr Abbas had so far not received any official invitation to a three-way meeting, but added that such a gathering would help Mr Netanyahu "promote himself as a man seeking peace and negotiation".

Mr Mitchell is trying to put together a package for restarting Israeli-Palestinian talks. Under the deal, Israel would suspend the expansion of Jewish settlements while Arab states would make gestures towards normalising ties with Israel. Such overtures from Arab countries would help Mr Netanyahu sell a settlement freeze to his predominantly hardline, pro-settler governing coalition. Mr Mitchell indicated on Sunday that he aimed for the negotiations on the freeze to be completed in the coming days to allow for the resumption of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians by the end of September.

Such a goal would fit well with a plan by Barack Obama, the US president, to arrange for a three-way meeting with Mr Netanyahu and Mr Abbas at the UN General Assembly late next week. Mr Abbas has said he would not return to the negotiations table with Israel unless a total freeze on settlement activity is instituted. Such a freeze would be in line with the 2003 peace "road map", which is backed by western countries and calls for a halt to the settlements as well as for steps taken by the Palestinians to prevent violence against Israel.

Israel, meanwhile, appears eager for the meeting to take place. Haaretz, a liberal Israeli newspaper, reported yesterday that Shimon Peres, the country's president, secretly met Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian negotiator, in Jerusalem last week to try to convince him that Mr Abbas should meet Mr Netanyahu. However, Mr Netanyahu's office issued a statement on Monday that "a meeting has not yet been set to launch the diplomatic process".

Mr Netanyahu said on Monday that the freeze would not be as comprehensive as the Palestinians would like it to be. Speaking to a parliamentary committee, he said he would "consider reducing the scope of the construction", but not completely halting it. Although he did not give a time frame for the building lull, he said it would only be for a "limited" time. Indeed, some Israeli activists who track settlements have in recent days said they expect little more than a slowdown in construction, rather than a freeze, as a result of the possible agreement between Israel and the United States. They estimate that the number of settler homes constructed this year in the West Bank will probably amount to about 1,100 compared with the annual average of 1,700 in the past five years. This year's estimate includes the 455 new houses that Israel announced last week and which it is approving, while the rest includes homes built in the first half of 2009.

Furthermore, this estimate does not include the hundreds of temporary and permanent structures that are constructed every year in the West Bank without the Israeli government's authorisation. About 500,000 Jews live in the West Bank and in East Jerusalem along with three million Palestinians. The Jewish settlements are considered illegal by the international community. Palestinians view settlements as a land grab and claim they are the main stumbling block to the creation of their own independent state.