Washington - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton
Friday dismissed suggestions by a former Israeli official that the US
had secretly agreed to allow Israel to expand its settlements in the
Palestinian territories.
Clinton told reporters there was no reference to such an
understanding in the 'negotiating record' that was turned over to the
Obama administration by the outgoing Bush administration.
She was responding to a question about an essay published in
Israel this week by Dov Weissglas, a former advisor to former prime
minister Ariel Sharon. Weissglas, in an op-ed in the Yediot Ahronot
newspaper on Tuesday, wrote that the Bush administration had given
the informal go-ahead for settlements to expand to accommodate
'natural growth.'
Clinton's remarks reinforced US President Barack Obama's message
from Cairo on Thursday, when he repeated his admonishment that Israel
must stop its settlements policy.
'There is no memorialization of any informal and oral agreements,'
Clinton said. 'If they did occur, which, of course, people say they
did, they did not become part of the official position of the United
States government.'
Obama insists that settlement expansion, even to accommodate
natural growth, violates commitments made by Israel in the 2003 'road
map' peace plan.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is on a collision course
with Washington over Obama's stance, calling it an 'unreasonable
demand' earlier this week.
Clinton, who spoke to reporters after meeting her Turkish
counterpart in Washington, said the obligations under the road map
are 'very clear.'
USA
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