Monday, February 15, 2010

Repeating the mistakes from last year! U.S. denies dropping demand for Israel settlement freeze

(Haaretz).U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday dismissed Palestinian claims that the Obama administration had rescinded on its demand for Israel to halt activity in West Bank settlements.

"Our position is that settlement activity is illegitimate, and that the final resolution of borders has to be worked out that will give both sides, the Israelis and the Palestinians, the secure borders that they deserve to have," Clinton told Al Jazeera during a visit to Doha.

"It will be based, as I have said many times, on the 1967 lines, with the agreed swaps, and taking into account subsequent developments," she said. "Those are the very clear parameters that the United States believes that the parties should negotiate over.

"So that is, then, our condition. It remains our condition. And we think the best way to resolve the ongoing concerns that are reflected in the question and the feelings that so many people have is to get the parties into a negotiation facilitated by the United States, and to assist them in whatever way we can to reaching a resolution on borders, on refugees, on security, on Jerusalem that will, once and for all, end the conflict," Clinton added.