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US denies giving Israel green light for
settlement expansion
Washington— The United States denied a report that it gave the green
light to Israel to expand settlements that it would retain as part
of a final peace deal with the Palestinians.Israeli Prime Minister
Ehud Olmert, quoted by The Washington Post, said this week that
President George W. Bush four years ago gave a letter to Olmert’s
predecessor Ariel Sharon allowing Israel to expand those West Bank
settlements.
“The answer to that question is in the story itself...and that is
‘no,’ State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters when
asked if the story were true.
McCormack was referring to denials attributed in the story to Daniel
Kurtzer, the former US ambassador to Israel, and White House
National Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe.Under the 2003 roadmap
for Palestinian-Israeli peace drafted by the United States and key
partners, Israel is required to freeze settlements and the
Palestinians to stop violence.
The Post quotes Israeli officials as saying that they have clear
guidance from Bush administration officials to continue building
settlements, as long as it meets carefully negotiated criteria.
The newspaper said in a key sentence in Bush’s 2004 letter to
Sharon, the president said: “In light of new realities on the
ground, including already existing major Israeli population centers,
it is unrealistic to expect that the outcome of final status
negotiations will be a full and complete return to the armistice
lines of 1949.” The Post also cited an interview given by Dov
Weissglas, who was Sharon’s chief of staff, in which he said US
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice reaffirmed the understanding in
a secret deal reached in 2005 before Israel withdrew from the Gaza
Strip.
But McCormack said: “You’ve heard her (Rice) talk about this in
terms of the issue of settlements and ultimately ...these questions
don’t arise if you have a final political deal. “And we’ve also made
clear over and over again that any lines that are drawn by both
sides need to be negotiated by both sides and any deviation from the
... known lines are going to have to be negotiated,” McCormack
said.—AFP
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