JERUSALEM — With pressure on from global mediators Friday, Israel and the Palestinians appeared likely to resume American-mediated indirect peace talks despite a flap over east Jerusalem construction.
But hopes for results remain dim. There is virtually no expectation that hard-line Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu can reach a deal with the Palestinians that eluded his more dovish Israeli predecessors.
Meeting in Moscow on Friday, the so-called Quartet of Mideast peacemakers, which includes the United States, Russia, European Union and United Nations, called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to negotiations with a goal of reaching a peace deal that would create a Palestinian state within two years.
In a strongly worded statement read by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, the Quartet reiterated its condemnation of Israeli construction in disputed east Jerusalem, promised to monitor developments there closely and renewed its call for a complete halt of all settlement activity.
But it did not escalate the feud over Israel’s plans, announced last week, to build 1,600 new apartments in an east Jerusalem Jewish neighborhood. Speaking in Moscow, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton also suggested the United States wanted to move beyond the feud to get planned Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks rolling.
The announcement of the new construction, during a visit to Jerusalem last week by Vice President Joe Biden, angered Washington. Clinton dressed down Netanyahu this week, demanding concrete steps from Israel to get talks going.
On Friday, after a telephone conversation with Netanyahu, she took a positive tone. “What I heard from the prime minister in response to the requests we made was useful and productive,” Clinton said.
The status of Jerusalem is one of the toughest issues of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Palestinians claim its eastern, historically Arab part as the capital of a future state, while Netanyahu objects to partitioning the city, retreating from positions of previous Israeli governments.
The international community does not recognize Israel’s annexation of east Jerusalem after the 1967 Mideast war and views the Jewish neighborhoods there as settlements like those Israel has built in the West Bank. Israel has only agreed to curb construction in the West Bank — for a 10-month period that ends in September.
Ban will arrive in the region today. On Sunday, U.S. Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell returns to meet Israeli and Palestinian leaders in hopes of getting the peace process restarted after a 15-month lull.
