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U.S. Ambassador Daniel Kutzer (U.S. Embassy, Tel Aviv)
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| By Associated Press March 25, 2005 |
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The U.S. ambassador said Friday it was unrealistic to expect Israel to withdraw from the entire West Bank under a Mideast peace deal, reaffirming U.S. support for Israel's retention of major settlements just days after Israel announced plans to expand a settlement outside Jerusalem.
Ambassador Dan Kurtzer told Israeli media he was simply reiterating the policy announced by U.S. President George W. Bush last year. But the interview came at a sensitive time and irritated Palestinians already angry over Israel's announcement this week that it would add 3,500 housing units to Maaleh Adumim, the largest West Bank settlement.
In an interview published Friday, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the Maaleh Adumim expansion was "at odds with American policy," marking her sharpest criticism of Israel since taking office.
Calling the project "not really a satisfactory response," Rice told the Los Angeles Times that the United States expressed its concerns this week to the government of Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, whom the Bush administration has staunchly supported.
A team of senior U.S. diplomats, National Security Council official Elliott Abrams and State Department official David Welch, raised the issue with Israel during a visit to the region this week, U.S. Embassy spokesman Paul Patin said.
A senior Israeli official said Friday that the government told the envoys that while it had approved the plan, it had not made a final decision on whether to begin construction.
The construction plans have infuriated the Palestinians, who claim all of the West Bank as part of a future state. The plan is especially contentious because it would link Maaleh Adumim to eastern Jerusalem, separating Arab neighborhoods of Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank.
Senior Palestinian officials told the U.S. envoys the expansion would endanger peace prospects, undermine efforts by Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas to end violence and isolate east Jerusalem, which they want as the capital of a future state.
European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana also criticized the expansion plan, saying it would damage efforts to broker a peace deal.
"The decision went against the commitment of the parties to abstain from all unilateral measures which could affect a definitive agreement," he said in a statement Friday. Solana added that the European Union expected Israel to honor its obligations under the internationally backed "road map" peace plan.
The road map calls on Israel to freeze all construction in West Bank settlements, including building new homes to account for natural growth of existing populations.
But Bush gave Sharon a letter in April saying that with "new realities on the ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers, it is unrealistic to expect" a full Israeli withdrawal.
Kurtzer declined to say whether Maaleh Adumim was one of the settlements Bush was referring to, telling Channel 10: "We know what they are and the people of Israel know what they are."
Kurtzer spoke Friday after the Israeli daily Yediot Ahronot quoted him as telling a group of Foreign Ministry trainees that there was no understanding between the United States and Israel over future control of settlement blocs. Kurtzer angrily denied the Yediot report.
"The president remains committed to what he said in that letter," he said, adding that the U.S. commitment to Israel retaining control over major population centers was "very, very firm."
Kurtzer later called Sharon, told him he was misquoted and reiterated the existing U.S. policy, he said.
Sharon is planning a full withdrawal from the Gaza Strip and four small West Bank settlements this summer. While leaving the door open to a larger pullout from the West Bank in the future, Sharon has said he expects to retain large settlements where most of the more than 200,000 settlers live, including Maaleh Adumim.
Kurtzer did not mention the Maaleh Adumim project and said the United States remains committed to the road map, which envisions an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel.
Kurtzer's comments annoyed some Palestinian officials.
"The United States can't decide on behalf of the Palestinians and can't decide final status negotiation issues by itself," said Saeb Erekat, a senior Palestinian peace negotiator. "We urge the United States to have Israel stop settlement activity."
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