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WASHINGTON: Israel defied US President Barack Obama's administration on Wednesday by again rejecting calls for a total freeze of Jewish settlements as a way to restart peace talks with the Palestinians.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, standing next to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton after their talks in Washington, said Israel did not have "any intention to change the demographic balance" of the West Bank.
"But we think that as in any place, babies are born, people get married, some pass away and we cannot accept this vision about an absolutely complete freezing of settlements," said Lieberman.
"I think that we must keep the natural growth," he said after the two held their first official meeting since the right-leaning government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took office in late March.
"This approach is very clear and also we had some understandings with the previous administration (of George W. Bush) and we try to keep this direction," he said.
The Israelis say they received commitments from the Bush administration permitting some growth in existing settlements. They say the US position was laid out in a 2004 letter from Bush to then Israeli premier Ariel Sharon.
But Lieberman, head of the ultranationalist Yisrael Beitenu party, reiterated that Netanyahu's Likud-led coalition government is ready for "immediate direct talks with the Palestinians."
The Palestinians reject the Netanyahu government's policy toward them.
After months of US pressure, Netanyahu broke with his right-wing party's ideology on Sunday and endorsed a the two-state solution, the cornerstone of international Middle East peacemaking efforts for years.
But he set a slew of conditions: Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state; full demilitarisation of the future state that will not control its air space or have the ability to forge military pacts; and "ironclad" security guarantees for Israel.
In the press conference with Lieberman, Clinton appeared a little tense as she stuck by the administration's opposition to any kind of settlement activity in line with a 2003 international roadmap agreed to by Israel.
"As President Obama, Senator (George) Mitchell and I have said, we want to see a stop to the settlements," Clinton said.
"We think that is an important and essential part of pursuing the efforts leading to a comprehensive agreement and the creation of a Palestinian next to an Israeli Jewish state that is secure in its borders and future," she said.
On May 27, Clinton said Obama made it clear during Netanyahu's visit to Washington the same month that he wants no "natural growth exceptions" to his call for a settlement freeze.
Clinton also revealed that differences remained on whether communication between the Bush administration and the Sharon government committed the Obama administration to allowing some settlements.
"In looking at the history of the Bush administration, there were no informal or oral enforceable agreements," she said, repeating earlier statements on the matter.
When an Israeli journalist asked how the Obama administration could envision a peace deal with the Netanyahu government placing so many conditions, Clinton suggested the government could change its stance.
She said previous prime ministers "have staked out positions that have changed over time."
Mitchell, the special envoy for Middle East peace, is to travel on June 25 to Paris for talks with Netanyahu in the wake of the Israeli premier's speech, Assistant Secretary of State for Public Affairs Philip Crowley said. - AFP/de
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