White House’s spokesman Robert Gibbs, condemned Jerusalem’s announcement from the White House. U.S. Vice President Joe Biden said:
I condemn the decision by the government of Israel to advance planning for new housing units. The substance and timing of the announcement, particularly with the launching of proximity talks, is precisely the kind of step that undermines the trust we need right now.
The European Union’s foreign-policy director, Catherine Ashton, said on Wednesday, “May I join Vice-President Biden in condemning the decision to build 1,600 new houses.”
UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon also condemned Israel’s plan. Then, according to the Ma’an news agency, the Palestinian Authority’s leader Mahmoud Abbas warned that the move would derail negotiations before they had even begun and said:
It is apparent that the Israeli government does not want negotiations, nor does it want peace. The American administration must respond to this provocation with effective measures.
Israel’s Interior Minister Eli Yishai apologized on Wednesday for causing domestic and international distress and stated that he was uninformed of the district committee’s plan, because the matter was simply a routine, technical authorization. Yishai added:
If I’d have known, I would have postponed the authorization by a week or two since we had no intention of provoking anyone. It is definitely unpleasant that this happened during Biden’s visit. If the committee members would have known that the approval would have escalated to such a situation, they would have informed me.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu assured his guest Biden that the programme, which had been drafted three years ago and only received initial authorization that day, could take several months to be granted final approval.
Secretary of State Hilary Clinton and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs have been on a roll since Friday defending Iran’s assertions that it is not pursuing a nuclear weapons program.
You heard right.
In response to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s recent claims that Iran had enriched uranium to the 20% level required for medical isotopes at the Natanz enrichment facility, Gibbs declared: “The Iranian nuclear program has undergone a series of problems throughout the year. We do not believe they have the capability to enrich to the degree to which they now say they are enriching.”
Following the Israeli Government’s decision to build 700 more apartments in East Jerusalem, the White House press secretary Robert Gibbs expressed Washington’s concern over the future of the peace talks between the Palestinian Authority and Israel:
Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. Rather, both parties should return to negotiations without preconditions as soon as possible.
We believe that through good faith negotiations the parties can mutually agree on an outcome that realizes the aspirations of both parties for Jerusalem, and safeguards its status for people around the world.
Following Regev’s announcement, Palestinian Authority negotiator Saeb Erekat said: “We condemn this Israeli policy of continuing settlement activities, and we hope this will be an eye opener for the US administration and other [governments].”
An unnamed Israeli official stated that the Obama administration had been informed about the latest planned construction. A State Department official followed up, telling The Jerusalem Post that Washington had conveyed its displeasure before the announcement.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said: “The United States opposes new Israeli construction in east Jerusalem”, with the “permanent status issue” of the city to be resolved through negotiations between Israelis and Palestinians. He continued:
Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. Rather, both parties should return to negotiations without preconditions as soon as possible. The government of Israel noted its plans to issue tenders in east Jerusalem and we strongly objected, noting that these types of announcements harm peace efforts.
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Committee approved the construction plan for an additional 900 new housing units beyond the Green Line in Jerusalem.
We are dismayed at the Jerusalem Planning Committee’s decision to move forward on the approval process for the expansion of Gilo in Jerusalem. At a time when we are working to re-launch negotiations, these actions make it more difficult for our efforts to succeed. Neither party should engage in efforts or take actions that could unilaterally pre-empt, or appear to pre-empt, negotiations. The U.S. also objects to other Israeli practices in Jerusalem related to housing, including the continuing pattern of evictions and demolitions of Palestinian homes. Our position is clear: the status of Jerusalem is a permanent status issue that must be resolved through negotiations between the parties.
Contrary to initial reports from the US, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did get his private meeting with President Obama in Washington, with discussions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the Middle East peace talks. The White House headline statement was, “The president reaffirmed our strong commitment to Israel’s security, and discussed security cooperation on a range of issues.”
The problem for the Obama Administration is that journalists were unwilling to let “security cooperation” stand in place of other issues. State Department spokesman Ian Kelly was forced to hand trickier problems back to the White House:
QUESTION: On the peace process, is Senator Mitchell planning to go back to the Middle East, and what are you planning to do after the latest development on the Palestinian side?
MR. KELLY: Well, I think a lot of the focus today, of course, will be on the visit of Prime Minister Netanyahu. He’s meeting with the President tonight. We remain committed to our goal, which is the re-launch of negotiations between the sides and try and create the kind of atmosphere where these negotiations can succeed as soon as possible. As far as Senator Mitchell’s immediate plans, I’m not sure that he has plans in the very near term to return to the region. But of course, he’ll be ready to do so if that can be helpful.
MR. GIBBS: Good afternoon. Sorry we’re running a little bit late today. We will do a statement from, and take some questions — our Special Envoy for Middle East Peace, former Senator George Mitchell.
SENATOR MITCHELL: Thank you, Robert. Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I’ll make a brief statement, and then I’ll be pleased to respond to your questions.
The President had direct and constructive meetings with both Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas, and then he held his first trilateral meeting with the two leaders. As the President said, this was an important moment. Let me first give you some brief details.
Each of the three meetings was about 40 minutes long. The tone was positive and determined. The President made clear his commitment to moving forward, and the leaders shared their commitment. In the meetings with Prime Minister Netanyahu and President Abbas, the President was joined by Secretary Clinton, General Jones, Tom Donilon and myself. For the trilateral meeting, the President was joined by Secretary Clinton, General Jones and myself.
Yesterday’s New York Times reported, “The Obama administration and its European allies are preparing proposals that would shift strategy toward Iran by dropping a longstanding American insistence that Tehran rapidly shut down nuclear facilities during the early phases of negotiations over its atomic program.”
That fits with our developing analysis that the faction within the Administration which favours an improvement of diplomatic relations with Tehran, linked to co-operation on issues such as Afghanistan, is winning an internal battle. That faction, which includes President Obama, has recognised that there is no hope of getting Iran to drop the nuclear programme and, I suspect, that the programme is devoted primarily to civilian purposes rather than acquisition of the Bomb. Equally important, they have likely concluded that there is no good option to block Iran’s nuclear development: the US is unlikely to get strengthened multilateral economic sanctions, and an Israeli military strike — which still accepted by some within the Administration — would have serious, possibly disastrous, political consequences.
This does not mean that the internal battle is over. White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, showing nerves over the leaked story, denied that it reflected an Administration decision. The dramatic declaration in the “Times” was hedged with the escape clause: the phrase “allow Iran to continue enriching uranium for some period during the talks” also allows for a move back to sanctions — or a halt to discussions — if Tehran does not allow inspections that the US considers suitable. And a “senior Administration official” maintained that the Iranians would ultimately have to halt uranium enrichment, “Our goal remains exactly what it has been in the U.N. resolutions: suspension.”
Still, the trend continues to be towards US-Iran negotiation, rather than confrontation. Substantive talks, especially in public, still have to await the Iranian Presidential elections in June. However, Tehran’s signals that discussions will be welcomed, and Obama’s gradual ascendancy over his own hard-liners, points to another date in this new US-Iran relationship.
Another develepment on the Israel-Palestine “proximity talks” (see related analysis by Sharmine Narwani). On Tuesday, the Jerusalem District Planning and Building Committee approved a new plan to build 1,600 more housing units in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
Following the Israeli Government’s decision to build 700 more apartments in East Jerusalem, the White House press secretary Robert Gibbs expressed 
On Monday, the government spokesman Mark Regev announced that 
On Tuesday, the Jerusalem Municipal Planning Committee 
Contrary to initial reports from the US, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did get his private meeting with President Obama in Washington, with discussions on the Iranian nuclear programme and the Middle East peace talks. 
After the end of the tripartite meeting, the U.S. Mideast special envoy 
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