The Middle East Peace Quartet, the international sponsors of the Middle East peace negotiations, has called on Israel to 'freeze' all its settlement activities in occupied West Bank land in east Jerusalem.
The group, made up of the United Nations, United States, European Union and Russia, also reiterated their condemnation of Israel's latest move to add Jewish housing in disputed East Jerusalem.
Although Israel's plan last week to build 1,600 new houses in East Jerusalem came under unusually sharp and quick criticism from the international community, it was for the first time that a collective and unanimous voice of criticism by the Quartet peacemakers was raised against the controversial Israeli action.
The call has undoubtedly put Israel under intense pressure as it included even its closest allies.
Israel, which is the main recipient of U.S. foreign aid reaching $2.4 billion annually, was fast to apologize for bad timing of its announcement, but has rejected the demand by the U.S. to scrap its new construction plans.
U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, who is the Quartet's representative, attended the high-level meeting held at the Russian foreign ministry's guest house in Moscow on Friday.
The top international diplomats called on Israel and the Palestinians to return to peace negotiations with a goal of reaching a final settlement that would create an independent Palestinian state within 24 months.
A statement read by Ban Ki-moon at a joint news conference after the Quartet meeting urged "the government of Israel to freeze all settlement activity, including natural growth, dismantle outposts erected since March 2001 and to refrain from demolitions and evictions in east Jerusalem."
The leaders called on the Israelis and Palestinians to move first to indirect talks, followed by face-to-face negotiations.
Clinton told reporters that she expected to see Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Washington next week. "We are all committed to the launching of proximity talks between the Israelis and Palestinians," she added.
A spokesman for Netanyahu reportedly refused to comment on the statement.
The annexation of East Jerusalem, which is a part of West Bank, is not recognized by the international community, Ban Ki-moon said. However, most Israelis consider the Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem as part of Israel, differentiating them from West Bank settlements.
The U.N. chief also expressed concern at the worsening humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip and called upon Israelis and Palestinians to return to peace talks as soon as possible.
Chances of a peace treaty, as agreed by Ehud Olmert, who was the Prime Minister of Israel, and Palestinian President Mahmud Abbas at a U.S.-hosted meeting in Annapolis in 2007, faded after a highly destructive Israeli offensive on Gaza the following year.
Although the intensity of Gaza militant attacks on Israel diminished since then, the recent gains facilitated by U.S. diplomacy was undone with Israel unveiling plans for new housing in an ultra-Orthodox neighborhood in East Jerusalem.
It came within hours of Israeli and Palestinian leaders agreeing to launch "indirect proximity talks" under the mediation of the United States.
The latest round of U.S. diplomacy came 14 months after the previous peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis came to an abrupt end.
The development was seen as an achievement for the Obama administration, which has been making serious efforts to resolve the decades-long Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
It also marked the first serious effort by the two sides in finding a solution to the Middle-East conflict since Netanyahu took over as Israel's Prime Minister in March last year.
In the recent past, Netanyahu has repeatedly called for the resumption of peace talks with Palestinians and even hinted that his government was willing to allow the establishment of an independent but demilitarized Palestinian state.
Jewish construction in the West Bank and east Jerusalem is a particularly sore point with the Palestinians because it challenges their claims to lands they want for a future state.
All settlements in the two regions are considered illegal under international law, although Israel disputes this.
Meanwhile, U.S. Middle East envoy George Mitchell, who put off his visit to the region apparently provoked by Israel's defiance of international calls to halt new Jewish settlement plans, will proceed with the visit at the weekend, the U.S. State Department has said..
Mitchell would meet with Abbas and Netanyahu on Sunday.
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