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US agrees with Israel on settlements: Rice
Pakistan
Times Monitoring Desk
TEL AVIV (Israel): US
Secretary of State
 Condoleezza
Rice has denied any disagreement with Israel over Jewish settlements,
reiterating that any final negotiations will have to take major population
centres into account.
In an interview with Israeli public radio broadcast Sunday, she also
stressed the United States was committed to the internationally drafted
roadmap peace plan, which calls for the freezing of all settlement activity.
“The American view is that while we will not prejudice the outcome of the
final status negotiations... the existing major Israeli population centres
will have to be taken into account in any final negotiation,” she told the
radio.
“No one should say that there is no agreement between our two governments.
There is. I hope I’ve been able to make it clear,” she added.“American
policy remains unchanged in accordance with the roadmap, but I just wanted
to make certain that everyone understood what the April 14th agreement is,”
Rice said.
Recap
In an April 14 letter to Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, US President
George W. Bush said the final borders of a promised Palestinian state must
take into account demographic realities on the ground.
After talks between the two leaders on the same day, Bush said Palestinian
refugees should not be allowed to return to lands lost to Israel in 1948-9
and that Israel should be able to keep some Arab land captured in the 1967
war.
Rice’s comments were likely to further fuel the debate over the US position
on the West Bank settlements, regarded as illegal by the wider international
community.
On Friday, US ambassador Dan Kurtzer also said Israel would be able to
retain sovereignty over large Jewish settlement blocs in the West Bank,
contradicting reports that there had been a misunderstanding with Washington
on the issue.
Last week, Israel announced it would push ahead with the expansion of the
largest West Bank settlement—Maaleh Adumim, east of Jerusalem—through the
construction of more than 3,500 new homes. The peace blueprint, which was
also sponsored by the United Nations, was launched in 2003 but has made next
to no progress since.●
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