Nations make push for Mideast peace talks

March 20, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

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’s virtually no expectation here 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 Washington wanted to move beyond the feud to get Israeli-Palestinian proximity talks rolling.