U.S. gives up on settlement freeze push
Top story: The U.S. has given up its effort to persuade the Israeli government to freeze construction of Jewish settlements on the West Bank after weeks of fruitless negotiating. The Mideast peace talks have now been thrown into crisis as Palestinian negotiators say they will not return to talks until a freeze is in place.
The U.S. had attempted for three weeks to persuade Netanyahu's right-wing cabinet to accept a 90-day freeze, at one point discussing 20 F-35 as a deal-sweetener, but to no avail. Officials say that even if Netanyahu and his cabinet had been persuaded to accept the freeze, 90 days would not have been enough time to reach a deal on the core security issues of the conflict.
For now, the Obama administration will revert to brokering indirect talks between the two sides. Both Israeli and Palestinian negotiators are expected to visit Washington in the coming weeks.
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Europe Africa -By Joshua Keating |  |
JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images
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