(AFP) — Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will tell US President Barack Obama next week that Israel wants to keep building in existing settlements in the occupied West Bank, a senior aide told AFP on Tuesday.
"Netanyahu will insist on Israel's right to construct within existing settlement blocs in order to sustain their natural growth," said Zalman Shoval, a close confidante of Netanyahu and former Israeli ambassador to Washington.
"He will also make a clear commitment not to build new settlements," he added.
Netanyahu will argue that Obama's predecessor George W. Bush said in a letter to former prime minister Ariel Sharon in 2004 that large settlement blocs will remain under Israeli control in any future peace deal.
"The previous US administration made a clear commitment on the large settlement blocs. It is not possible not to build there," Shoval said.
"As for the other settlements, we will have to examine the issue when we discuss the final status (peace) agreement with the Palestinians," he said.
A senior government official said that "the new Israeli government will abide by previous commitments not to build new settlements."
