No Change in US Stance on Settlements: Clinton

With her recent statements in Jerusalem giving rise to contrary claims, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Monday iterated that there is no change in Washington’s stance against Israeli settlements in the West Bank. Secretary Clinton has been meeting Arab foreign ministers in Marrakech, Morocco.

“The Obama administration’s position on settlements is clear, unequivocal, it has not changed,” she said.

On Saturday, Clinton had urged Israelis and Palestinians to restart peace negotiations at the earliest and suggested that the settlement issue should be treated as a part of the peace process.

Her statement was viewed as an endorsement of the Israeli position that talks could commence without a settlement freeze, demanded by the Palestinians.

On Saturday, Clinton met Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

Reflecting a major move in Cairo in June, President Barack Obama said the US did not accept the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlement in the occupied territories and “it is time for these settlements to stop”.

The statement came for huge applause from the Palestinians but brought some strains to US-Israel relations.

While insisting that there is no shift in the administration’s position on settlement building, secretary Clinton on Monday described as “unprecedented” an Israeli offer to significantly restrict the growth of settlements.

“If it is acted upon it will be an unprecedented restriction on settlements and will have a significant and meaningful effect on restraining their growth,” she said.

Some 500,000 Jews have been settled in the West Bank and East Jerusalem since its occupation by Israel in 1967. The UN terms the settlements as “contrary to international law” and a threat to the two-state solution to the Israel-Palestinian conflict.