Israel announces settlement expansion as Rice meets Olmert

JERUSALEM – Israel announced a settlement expansion in the West Bank yesterday, dealing a blow to US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice as she held talks with Israel’s premier on jumpstarting the dormant Middle East peace process.

The housing ministry invited bids for construction of 44 new housing units in the largest settlement in the occupied West Bank, Maale Adumim. The news of the first tenders announced this year came as Rice and Olmert were meeting one-on-one for more than two hours at the premier’s Jerusalem residence.Palestinians and the Peace Now anti-settlement watchdog group warned the move jeopardised the international roadmap to Middle East peace – a plan that Rice has been pushing on her regional tour.”Israel must make a choice between peace and settlements.It cannot have both,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.”It’s defying the international community and undermining Secretary of State Rice’s peace efforts.”Announcing the bids for the settlement on the last day of Rice’s trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories “is just spitting in the face of the American government,” Peace Now spokesman Yariv Oppenheimer told AFP.”This is the best way to say to the American government the truth — that Israel is ignoring its commitments under the roadmap.”When asked to comment on the bids, Rice’s spokesman Sean McCormack said only that there is “no change in our policy.”The United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations were the authors of the Mideast roadmap, under which Israel was to freeze settlements.The plan has largely lay dormant since its launch nearly four years ago.Rice has said that the roadmap should be accelerated during her meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders over the past three days following her arrival in the region on Saturday.In Rice’s lightning visit to neighbouring Jordan late Sunday, King Abdullah II told Washington’s top diplomat that concrete progress needed to be made on the blueprint if the region was to be spared fresh bloodshed.Nampa-AFPThe news of the first tenders announced this year came as Rice and Olmert were meeting one-on-one for more than two hours at the premier’s Jerusalem residence.Palestinians and the Peace Now anti-settlement watchdog group warned the move jeopardised the international roadmap to Middle East peace – a plan that Rice has been pushing on her regional tour.”Israel must make a choice between peace and settlements.It cannot have both,” Palestinian chief negotiator Saeb Erakat told AFP.”It’s defying the international community and undermining Secretary of State Rice’s peace efforts.”Announcing the bids for the settlement on the last day of Rice’s trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories “is just spitting in the face of the American government,” Peace Now spokesman Yariv Oppenheimer told AFP.”This is the best way to say to the American government the truth — that Israel is ignoring its commitments under the roadmap.”When asked to comment on the bids, Rice’s spokesman Sean McCormack said only that there is “no change in our policy.”The United States, European Union, Russia and the United Nations were the authors of the Mideast roadmap, under which Israel was to freeze settlements.The plan has largely lay dormant since its launch nearly four years ago.Rice has said that the roadmap should be accelerated during her meetings with Israeli, Palestinian and Jordanian leaders over the past three days following her arrival in the region on Saturday.In Rice’s lightning visit to neighbouring Jordan late Sunday, King Abdullah II told Washington’s top diplomat that concrete progress needed to be made on the blueprint if the region was to be spared fresh bloodshed.Nampa-AFP