Livni: Israel to halt West Bank settlement activitiesBy Reuters
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni (Daniel Bar-On / Jini)
Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni on Wednesday characterized the expansion of West Bank settlements as "unhelpful," saying that Israel had decided to stop settlement activities. Israel's plan to build hundreds of homes in an exisiting settlement outside Jerusalem - announced after a Palestinian gunman killed eight Israelis at a religious seminary last week - has sparked an international outcry that was joined by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Wednesday. In an apparent bid to ease pressure from Israel on the issue that has threatened to derail fragile peace talks, Livni told students at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts: "It's not the Israeli government policy to expand settlements these days."
Livni characterized the planned construction as private building and "not dramatic." "Basically, I don't think that it helps," Livni said. "We decided to stop settlement activities." She added that Israel would "need to dismantle more settlements" under a peace deal for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that U.S. President George W. Bush has said he hoped to see before he leaves office in 2009.
Livni said Israel's 2005 troop pullout from the Gaza Strip, which removed some 8,000 Jewish settlers, was a signal Israel would eliminate more controversial enclaves for peace. She also seemed to rule out any plan by Israel to recapture Gaza despite the latest border tensions, saying: "Israel left the Gaza Strip not in order to come back." Livni, who has headed Israeli negotiations with the Palestinians since talks were jump-started by a U.S.-brokered November summit, said, "time is of the essence" for reaching a peace deal, as militants gained ground in the region. She said Israel needed little world involvement in mediating a peace deal, and hoped moderate Israelis and Palestinians were determined enough to do so on their own. "I believe there is hope, I believe there is opportunity," said Livni.
"I know the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the sexiest conflict in the world and everyone wants to be involved," said Livni, who visited Washington earlier in the week. "I think the world should leave it to us. There is no need to push us. It is about our lives."
FM: Tighten pressure on Iran
Earlier Wednesday, Livni urged the international community to tighten pressure, including economic sanctions, on Iran to halt its nuclear program and said: "The clock is ticking." "We must increase the pressure on the Iranian leadership now if we want to avoid difficult dilemmas in the future," Livni said in a speech to Massachusetts state lawmakers after a visit to Washington this week.
"The United Nations and the international community at large have recognized that economic sanctions, especially on Iran's energy sector, are the best means to pursue Iran to change its dangerous course," she said. The West accuses Tehran of following a program that could lead to nuclear weapons but Iran insists its development is for peaceful power generation only. Livni said there were plenty of ways to put pressure on Iran but said: "The clock is ticking." The UN Security Council last week imposed more sanctions on Iran for refusing to suspend nuclear enrichment and other sensitive activities. Western analysts doubt they will deter Tehran from its nuclear program.
"There are many who would like to see the flames of fire in the Middle East grow higher," Livni said in Boston. "When the Iranian regime denies the Holocaust, furthers the destruction of a fellow state, supports terror and violence while pursuing a nuclear weapon, it must be stopped," she said to applause from the Massachusetts lawmakers. Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has questioned whether the Holocaust took place. "We are determined to continue our quest to reach peace with those of the Palestinian side who ... have embraced as we have the vision of two states for two peoples," Livni said.
haaretz.com
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