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JERUSALEM : Israel's right-wing Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday a temporary easing of settlements put "the ball in the Palestinian court" as far as US-led peace efforts were concerned.
"The ball is now in the Palestinian court and we will see what happens," Lieberman said a day after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a 10-month easing of new Israeli construction in the occupied West Bank.
The move was praised by the United States as a step towards relaunching peace talks but the Palestinians said it fell far short of their demand that a complete settlement freeze precede any negotiations.
"We have done everything possible for Abu Mazen," Lieberman said in the interview with Israeli public radio, referring to Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas.
"The government has made unprecedented gestures and all we have received in return is blows and anti-Israeli manoeuvres on the international front by the Palestinian Authority."
Palestinian officials had slammed the move because it excludes occupied and annexed east Jerusalem, which Israel views as part of its capital but the Palestinians have demanded as the capital of their promised state.
The decision would also exclude the construction of public buildings in existing West Bank settlement blocs and allow hundreds of housing units on which construction has begun to be completed.
The United States has been struggling for months to get Israel and the Palestinians to relaunch direct negotiations suspended during last winter's devastating Gaza war.
- AFP/vm
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