The FINANCIAL — WASHINGTON. The United States still stands for direct talks between Israelis and Palestinians particularly after the expiration of the moratorium on Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, the U.S. Department of State said, according to RIA Novosti.
The 10-month moratorium on building Jewish settlements in the occupied Palestinian territory expires at 00.01 a.m. on Monday. Tel Aviv has repeatedly said the moratorium is unlikely to be extended. Palestinians threaten to quit direct peace negotiations with Israel if the settlement construction moratorium ends.
"We keep pushing for the talks to continue," Philip Crowley, the department's assistant secretary, said in a laconic statement.
He added that U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton spoke with Israeli Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu on this issue on September 27.
Jewish settlers marked the expiration of the moratorium with festivities and ceremonies that involved demonstration of construction equipment and building machinery.
In case Israel resumes its settlement activities, PNA leader Mahmoud Abbas will decide the fate of the Arab-Israeli direct peace talks after consultations with the League of Arab States and the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO).
The Israeli moratorium "has become a key element in determining Israel's intentions and how committed it is to the success of the negotiations," Abbas said earlier.
Israeli-Palestinian direct peace talks came to a halt in December 2008, when Israel launched an attack on the Gaza Strip in a bid to put an end to the firing of homemade rockets at southern Israel by Palestinian militants based in the enclave. The negotiations resumed in the United States on September 2.
The Palestinians have cited ongoing Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, both occupied by Israel since the 1967 Arab-Israeli War, as the main obstacle to the peace process.
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