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Russia Foils Washington's Bid for Quartet Declaration of Support for Israel's Settlement Freeze

(Ha'aretz) Barak Ravid - The U.S. failed last week to gain a declaration of international support for Israel's temporary settlement construction freeze by the Quartet after Russia expressed a series of reservations and foiled Washington's effort. In a conference call, Secretary of State Clinton proposed that the Quartet issue a joint statement of support for the Israeli decision to freeze construction. U.S. diplomat David Hale, deputy to U.S. special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell, initiated exchanges with his colleagues in the EU, the UN and Russia, but it quickly became clear that there was no agreement on the content of the statement. Senior Israeli and American officials say that Russia was responsible for foiling the announcement by expressing many reservations to the text proposed by the Americans - which was reportedly very short. At the crux of the Russian objections were two points that were very important to the U.S. administration: the Jewish identity of the State of Israel, and that the future border between Israel and the Palestinians would reflect developments on the ground - a reference to the large settlement blocs.
2009-12-04 07:44:38
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