Biden Says Israel, Palestinians to Answer for Acts (Update2)
March 10, 2010, 1:09 PM EST(Adds Biden comments in second and sixth paragraphs, visit to Bethlehem in seventh.)
By Gwen Ackerman and Jonathan Ferziger
March 10 (Bloomberg) -- Vice President Joe Biden said Israel and the Palestinians will be held accountable for actions jeopardizing peace efforts, such as Israeli approval of a plan for new homes in east Jerusalem.
“It is incumbent on both parties to build an atmosphere of support for negotiations and not to complicate them,” Biden said today in the West Bank city of Ramallah after meeting Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.
Israel’s announcement yesterday of plans to build 1,600 new homes was the second construction project approved this week in areas sought by Palestinians for a future state, and comes as Biden seeks to revive peace talks. Palestinian leaders, who refused to talk directly to Israel because of continued building in the West Bank, this week agreed to a U.S. proposal for indirect negotiations that Israel has also accepted.
“I call on Israel to halt settlement activities and stop imposing facts on the ground,” Abbas said today. He said Israel shouldn’t “waste the opportunity to make a real peace” and should “allow efforts by President Barack Obama and George Mitchell to succeed.”
Biden said the U.S. will keep pushing for a two-state solution to the Middle East conflict and ensure that Palestinians can travel between the West Bank and Gaza Strip without interference.
‘Fully Committed’
“Our administration is fully committed to the Palestinian people and to achieving a Palestinian state which is viable and contiguous,” Biden said after a two-hour meeting with Abbas.
The vice president later traveled in a 20-vehicle motorcade from Ramallah to Bethlehem, where he visited Nassar Stone Investment Co., a maker of stone tabletops and marble floor tiles with many customers in the U.S. Biden stopped at a souvenir shop, where he bought a golden cross, and met business leaders for dinner of houmous, tabouleh and lamb chops at the Jacir Palace Intercontinental Hotel.
Before leaving for Jordan tomorrow, Biden will deliver a speech at Tel Aviv University on the U.S.-Israeli relationship and take questions from students.
Israeli Interior Minister Eli Yishai defended the construction in east Jerusalem, saying the land wasn’t included in a partial building freeze declared by the government in November. He added that yesterday’s approval was “technical” and related only to the filing of the plan.
“I regret any grief caused the vice president by the timing of this,” Yishai said on Israel Radio.
Sought for Capital
The homes approved will be built in an area of Jerusalem captured by Israel from Jordan in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed in a move not recognized internationally. The Palestinians want east Jerusalem as the capital of a state they’re seeking to establish in the Gaza Strip and West Bank.
Biden yesterday condemned Israel’s plan to build in east Jerusalem, saying it threatened to undermine peace efforts. United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Jordan’s Minister of Information and Communication Nabil Sharif, and European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton also criticized the proposal.
“As we move forward, the United States will hold both sides accountable for any statements or actions that inflame tensions or prejudice the outcome of talks, as this decision did,” Biden said.
The last round of peace talks collapsed in 2008 after Israel carried out a military operation in the Gaza Strip in what it said was a bid to stop rocket attacks on its southern towns and cities.
Efforts Foundered
Previous U.S. efforts to revive talks foundered on the issue of West Bank settlements, with Netanyahu announcing a partial building halt and Abbas refusing to negotiate without a freeze on all Israeli construction.
Hours before Biden’s arrival on March 8, Israel approved the building of 112 new homes in a West Bank settlement. Mitchell, the U.S. Mideast envoy and a former senator, announced later that day that Israel and the Palestinians had agreed to engage in indirect “proximity” talks.
The foreign ministers of Arab states agreed in Cairo last week to give the talks four months and call for an emergency United Nations Security Council meeting if they fail.
Some Arab states today withdrew their support following Israel’s settlement announcements, Palestine Liberation Organization executive committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo said on Voice of Palestine radio today.
Arab League representatives were to meet late today in Cairo to reconsider endorsement of the talks, said Hisham Youssef, a spokesman for Arab League General Amre Moussa. Youssef said he wasn’t aware of Arab states withdrawing support for talks.
“This confirms what we already knew, that Israel is not serious,” Youssef said of the construction plans. “The question is, has Washington gotten the message?”
--With assistance from Indira Lakshmanan in Washington, Bill Varner in New York, Dan Williams in Cairo, Saud Abu Ramadan in Gaza City, Calev Ben-David in Jerusalem, and Massoud Derhally in Amman. Editors: Peter Hirschberg, Heather Langan
To contact the reporters on this story: Gwen Ackerman in Jerusalem at gackerman@bloomberg.net; Jonathan Ferziger in Bethlehem and Ramallah at jferziger@bloomberg.net.
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Peter Hirschberg at phirschberg@bloomberg.net.
